One of the reasons I became inclusivity adviser at Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) was to help affect positive change in the future of the legal industry. The proportion of black associates in law has remained static for the last three years, and sits at just 1.4%, according to the most recent Diversity League Tables report. Figures from the American Bar Association state that 88% of all lawyers are white, and there is overwhelming evidence that law firms and their inhabitants cannot act without the influence of bias, even when combined with the best of intentions.

In my role I want to highlight the value in diversity from both a business and moral standpoint, and help the legal profession address the issues underpinning the statistics. Recent research by McKinsey & Co found that ethnically diverse companies are more likely to outperform their non-diverse counterparts financially by 35%. What's more, evidence shows that diversity engenders a happier, more motivated workforce, and staff who are more likely to stay with their organisation for longer.

For law firms it is important at the graduate recruitment stage to have not only fair and unbiased processes, but also to attract as many applications as possible from a diverse range of candidates. We want to ensure that we are picking from the biggest and best pool of talent available. To this end, I have been working recently to develop an event at BLP called 'Underrepresentation of black people in law: Your route to success'. We want to be proactive in supporting the career ambitions of black students and in openly addressing whatever difficulties and challenges exist for minority candidates entering City firms.

The event will feature speakers including BLP partner Segun Osuntokun, barrister and Urban Lawyers founder Tunde Okewale, and international law firm associate Natalie Carter, discussing their own different career paths.

Commenting on the event, Osuntokun said: "Walking into a boardroom of white faces as a black lawyer can be daunting, particularly when you are more junior. I hope that by offering some advice and career inspiration to these black students, as people who have forged our own successful careers in law, we can encourage them to pursue their ambitions and begin to achieve a more representative balance in the future makeup of our industry".

Lucy Hutchinson is inclusivity adviser at BLP. This article was commissioned for the Turning Points hub, an online career development resource from Legal Week in association with BLP. For more information on BLP's 'Underrepresentation of black people: Your route to success' please click here.