Lake Legal

Lake Legal Limited is fully committed to eliminating unlawful and unfair discrimination.  It aims to promote equality and diversity and equal opportunities in all its professional dealings with clients, employees, self-employed contractors, job applicants, other solicitors, barristers, visitors and third parties.

The company shall treat everyone equally and with the same attention, courtesy and respect and shall not unlawfully discriminate because of any “protected characteristic”, being:

• Age;
• Disability;
• Gender reassignment;
• Marriage or civil partnership status;
• Pregnancy or maternity;
• Race (including nationality, colour and ethnic or national origin;
• Religion or belief;
• Sex; or
• Sexual orientation.

As an employer, the company will treat all employees and job applicants equally and fairly and not unlawfully discriminate against them. This applies equally to voluntary positions and anyone undertaking work experience with us. This will, for example, include arrangements for recruitment and selection, terms and conditions of employment, access to training opportunities, access to promotion and transfers, flexible working hours, maternity, paternity and other leave arrangements, performance appraisal systems, grievance and disciplinary processes, demotions, selection for redundancies, dress code, references, bonus schemes, work allocation and any other employment related activities. The company will appoint, train, develop, reward and promote on the basis of merit and ability.

Where appropriate and necessary, the company will endeavour to make reasonable adjustments, provide appropriate facilities and conditions of service which take into account the specific needs of employees which arise from their ethnic or cultural background; gender; responsibilities as carers; disability; religion or belief or sexual orientation.

The company is committed to meeting the diverse needs of clients. It will take steps to ensure the services they provide are accessible to all. The company will take account, in particular, the needs of clients with a disability and clients who are unable to communicate effectively in English. It will consider whether particular groups are predominant within their client base and devise appropriate policies or reasonable adjustments to meet their needs.

The company will instruct barristers and experts on the basis of their skill, experience and ability and not unlawfully discriminate, or encourage barristers’ clerks to unlawfully discriminate on any of the protected characteristics.

The company will monitor equal opportunities information about job applicants from different gender, disability and ethnic groups.  They also provide diversity data to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, or other regulatory bodies as required.  The company does not currently publish diversity data due to its size and structure.  Where this is published, it is done so in general terms to protect the identity of individuals in the company and comply with data protection legislation.