Pump Court Tax Chambers: Anti-Racism Statement
PCTC is committed to ensuring equality of opportunity and treatment for all. We aim to foster an environment in which people from all backgrounds feel welcome and are treated fairly.
We understand that we have a role to play in improving racial diversity, particularly focusing on recruitment and retention of barristers and staff.
We are taking steps to play our part, including:
- Participating in the 10,000 Black Interns programme;
- Being a founding member of Bridging the Bar (BTB), and offering mini-pupillages via BTB;
- Establishing a Race at the Bar working group (under our Equality & Diversity Committee) to focus on racial diversity;
- Undertaking annual reviews of our pupillage applicant data to identify under-represented applicant groups and potential barriers arising during the recruitment process;
- Developing policies and processes to ensure staff vacancies are widely advertised;
- Personalised and proactive practice management, including seeking to identify any issues that might undermine the inclusive environment we aim to achieve.
In addition, we encourage individual members to participate in other initiatives, such as:
- Mentoring via BTB, and assisting with BTB’s application processes;
- Mentoring via Social Mobility Foundation;
- Work experience via the Sutton Trust.
We have undertaken a race equality audit, and through that audit we have identified a range of actions for the future, including:
- Undertaking specific race awareness training, in addition to regular training on equality, diversity and fair recruitment;
- Seeking to work with specialist bar associations to attract a more diverse range of applicants;
- With the benefit of the pupillage applicant data mentioned above, developing action plans to encourage applications from groups identified as under-represented;
- Considering offering targeted clerking work experience with the aim of increasing the potential pool of clerking applicants;
- Collecting and monitoring data from mini-pupillage applications in order to understand any barriers that might arise at that stage.
We recognise that improving racial diversity at the Bar is an ongoing challenge and, through our audit process, we will continue to monitor our progress and develop new proposals.