Fostering a more diverse organisation is now high on the agenda for most large businesses and law firms in both the UK and the US. These organisations are realising that having a diversity policy in place, however eloquently written, is not sufficient to effectively promote diversity. Instead, they realise that they need to make diversity an intrinsic part of a fair and equitable work culture.

The catalyst for creating a more diverse workplace has come not from law firms, but from external forces. On both sides of the Atlantic, those external influences include changing demographics and pressure from diversity-conscious companies such as Barclays, UBS, Starbucks as well as professional organisations such as the Law Society and the American Bar Association (ABA).

In the UK, the Government has stepped in to motivate law firms to improve their diversity programmes and to monitor and publish their progression data. So, what is the primary difference between the UK and US on promoting diversity in law firms? In most cases, the key is that the US has at least a 15-year head start.