Published research
This section contains information on the main equality research
projects the Society has undertaken.
Currently, information is available on five projects:
- the Women in the Legal Profession in Scotland
study
- research into the profile of the profession
- Robust Foundations - Changes in Law Society Membership
Profile
- a review of service accessibility
- a consultation on the new complaints process
It should be noted that many smaller projects have taken place
to examine specific issues. Details of these can be found in our
Equality and Diversity Strategy (which includes our Race
Equality Scheme), and in our Disability and Gender Equality
Schemes.
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The women in the legal profession study, 2005
The Society and the Equal Opportunities Commission Scotland
jointly commissioned this study into the position of women in the
legal profession in Scotland because of the perception that women
appeared to be obtaining proportionally fewer senior positions in
practice or the public sector. There was very little recent
empirical research into the accuracy of such perceptions.
The Society's thanks go to Moira MacMillan, Dr Nick McKerrell,
Angus McFadyen and their supporting teams for their work on this
project.
The full report and a summary can be downloaded from the
menu to the right of this page
The profile of the profession, 2006
This project was managed by an independent organisation, The Grange
Group, and involved the distribution of a questionnaire to all
our members, accompanied by a marketing campaign emphasising the
importance of the project. Of around 10,000 members, 3,017
responded, with a good demographic match to some of the data we can
already definitively identify from our database of members (such as
gender and age profiles). This means we believe we have a dataset
we can be confident in.
As this was the Society's first time collecting much of this
sensitive data, the decision was made to make the questionnaire
anonymous and use a third-party data processor so that individuals
were not having to return the data to the Society itself.
The full report can be downloaded from the menu to the right of
this page.
Changes in the Society's membership profile, May 2010
During 2009, the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland worked
with the Law Society and the Faculty of Advocates to conduct a
survey of the Scottish legal profession to: establish baseline data
on diversity; identify any potential barriers to judicial
applications; and, elicit views about the factors which do or would
encourage eligible candidates to apply.
This report by MVA Consultancy compares the data from Society
members across the two surveys to identify any changes in the
demographic profile of solicitors since the profile of the
profession research was carried out.
Service accessibility review, 2006
This project saw directors and staff from different
departments engage with members of the public with a range of
disabilities in order to assess how the Society can better meet
their needs.
The project was managed for the Society by the Inclusion
Development Partnership. Any organisation considering work in this
field is welcome to contact the Society to discuss our positive
experience of working with this dedicated team.
The full report can be downloaded from the menu to the right of
this page.
Consultation on new complaints process, 2008
The Society invited Capability Scotland's Equality Unit to host
a disability equality involvement event in June 2008.
The aim was to obtain the views of disabled people on the
complaints system adopted with the creation of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission in October
2008.
Five disabled people with a range of impairments and conditions
attended the event.
The full report can be downloaded from the menu to the right of
this page.