St Ives Chambers

St. Ives Chambers recognises the importance of continuing to develop a Bar which reflects the diversity of the society we serve. The principles of fairness and equality are central to how we approach our clients, colleagues, and working culture. As a Chambers, we pride ourselves in championing causes that challenge discrimination in matters of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and disability. At St Ives, we want to go beyond what is required policy and expected behaviours, by seeking to ensure that we are pivotal in implementing, engaging and introducing initiatives that promote the diverse society we represent and defend.

The highlights from our E&D initiatives have been those occasions when we have reached out beyond Chambers and engaged the wider community.

We were early signatories to, and continue to enthusiastically support, the Free Bar initiative, amplifying the voices and visibility of our colleagues in the LGBTQ+ community. It is important to us that we are active in the legal community both nationally and in the West Midlands, through regular seminars and training conferences which allow us to disseminate and learn from our collective experiences. Our Modern Families Conference brought together solicitors, leading experts, child protection professionals, and the combined expertise of our own barristers to reflect on current family law in a modern society of alternative family models and non-binary identities, and in recognition that our justice system needs to embrace the challenge of ensuring moral and legal acceptance in all cases.

Our annual Black History Month events are open to legal professionals and the local student community. They give us a chance to learn from the experiences of our judges, barristers, and other professionals of colour, and challenge us to continue to reflect and develop our working practices when it comes to ensuring racial equality.

Chambers sponsors and actively supports an initiative, local to the West Midlands, that provides students from all social backgrounds with an opportunity to experience life at the Bar. The “Bridging the Bar” scheme, benefits local students from all backgrounds, providing them with invaluable first-hand experience of shadowing a Barrister in their day-to-day working life. This scheme helps to demystify life at the Bar and provide aspiring young lawyers with the confidence and assurance that at a Chambers like St. Ives, their professional ambitions are attainable.

As part of its’ commitment to support inclusivity at the Bar, St Ives also signed up to host an intern via the Bar Council’s steering group in support for the 10,000 Black Interns initiative, which aims to address the underrepresentation of Black talent within a wide range of professions, including the law.

Advancement in the areas of equality, diversity, and inclusion within our profession are not boxes to be ticked, but rather a continuing process of asking ourselves difficult questions about how we deliver the service that we do and how we drive such change. At St. Ives, we are ambitious about our development.