Farrar's Building

Farrar’s Building is committed to actively promoting equality and diversity at the Bar. We demonstrate our commitment through a variety of initiatives, for example:

• We have in place a comprehensive Parental Leave Policy which we take a great deal of pride in. It is one of the most supportive polices in place at the Bar.
• We actively encourage flexible working, allowing our members and staff the ability to work away from our London office. We realise that everyone associated with Farrar’s has very different personal circumstances, so we entrust everyone with the freedom to work remotely to ensure that the rigidity of purely office-based working does not make their lives unnecessarily difficult.
• We support non-profit and community organisations that promote diversity, inclusion and education at the Bar from underrepresented groups, for exampleupReach. A recent example of this is Farrar’s hosting a student for a week in July via the upReach programme, which seeks to create the conditions for undergraduates from less-advantaged backgrounds to access and sustain top-level graduate jobs. This placement followed on from a workshop delivered via upReach to students with volunteers from Farrar’s in 2021. We are also looking at ways we can support other organisations, such as Bridging the Bar and 10,000 Black Interns, and Inner Temple with Discovery Days for Schools.
• We are completing a race equality audit to identify and take action in relation to any barriers to race equality within our practice, including by: (a) engaging with members of chambers and staff from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds ; (b) analysing available data on recruitment, work allocation, ethnicity pay gaps and opportunities for development and progression; and (c) critically analysing our procedures for recruiting, retaining and supporting the progression of barristers and staff from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds.
• We actively encourage applications from people within underrepresented groups at the Bar – members or staff – in our recruitment promotional materials, for example clerking roles, pupillage, probationary tenancies or lateral recruits.
• We are considering adjustments to our mini-pupillage programme, for example funded mini-pupillages to broaden our reach within communities where financial support is necessary for individuals to take advantage of such an opportunity.
• We have frameworks in place to assess, and if necessary, address inequalities in income/work distribution by race or gender.