Radcliffe Chambers

At Radcliffe Chambers, we recognise that there is a lack of diversity in our profession. As a chambers we are committed to improving our gender balance, and ethnic and social diversity. Only by building a truly diverse chambers can we offer the broad range of perspectives that will allow us to best support our clients.

We are committed to:

• Building an outstanding team, recruited from a diverse pool of talent
• Implementing an employee value proposition including their well-being.
• Offering mentorship programmes.
• Opening and encouraging more students to consider the study of law and in particular chancery and commercial
• Addressing unconscious bias

We have policies supporting these objectives. In particular, we provide equality of opportunity in chambers and throughout our recruitment processes. In 2019, we introduced the Rare Contextual Recruitment System which uses big data to help organisations identify candidates with the greatest potential. Rare enables us to identify exceptional candidates we may otherwise miss, which is achieved by putting candidates’ accomplishments in context. We are one of only a handful of chambers that use this system. As a result we have seen an increase in candidates from non-traditional backgrounds applying for pupillage.

Radcliffe Chambers is also the only chambers to be listed as a Top 75 employer in the 2021 Social Mobility Employment Index. The Social Mobility Employment Index ranks UK employers based on the actions they take to ensure they are providing equal opportunities for people from all socioeconomic backgrounds. The index helps to highlight employers who are doing the most to change their recruitment process and advance talented employees from different backgrounds. We were also a finalist in the Progression Programme of the Year Category at the UK Social Mobility Awards 2021.

This year in collaboration with Big Voice London, we have hosted our yearly ‘Student Camp’ for sixth-form students from under-represented groups. Over a two day period, we held a series of workshops covering multiple aspects of legal practice with an emphasis on interview skills and the various routes to become a barrister. During this camp, we hope to inspire and support young people to pursue a career at the bar.

We also signed up to be a part of the 10,000 Black Interns programme, and hosted our first intern in July this year. 10,000 Black Interns is an initiative that came from the success of ‘100 Black Interns’. The aim of this programme is to transform the future prospects of young black people living in the UK through paid work experience across 24 different sectors.

Please contact Isabel Bertram if you would be interested in working with us on a joint project, or if you have any feedback on our responsible business activities.