Optimism doesn’t come naturally to me. So, I was somewhat surprised to find myself feeling a little bit upbeat after reading courts editor Bianca Castro’s excellent coverage of the lady chief justice’s annual press conference yesterday.
Driving this rare feeling of optimism was the LCJ’s comments on diversity.
I’ve moaned a few times in the Gazette about the stubbornly low proportion of black judges. A reminder: it has remained at 1% since 2014. I even gently moaned about this depressing statistic to the lord chief justice in 2021.
So I was heartened to hear the lady chief justice tell journalists yesterday about some of the work the judiciary is doing to get that percentage figure up: a black judges’ network is being considered and the judiciary is engaging with the Black Crown Prosecution Solicitors Association.
The Judicial Diversity Forum’s Priorities and Actions for 2025, published this month, also show the judiciary isn’t just paying lip service to wanting more black judges on the bench.
Eliminating structural barriers is a priority area for the Judicial Diversity Forum. Action includes targeted outreach to black legal professionals to gain an insight into the barriers they face trying to enter the judiciary and putting in place measures to remove those barriers.
A review of black lawyers’ participation levels in Judicial Office outreach programmes last year showed ‘representative attendance levels but an uneven pattern of interest across jurisdictions’, the action plan states. This year, the forum will develop deeper relationships with networks representing black lawyers and promote mentoring opportunities across various jurisdictions.
The judiciary is certainly trying. Do I think we’ll see the proportion of black judges climb to 2% when the next set of judicial diversity statistics are published this summer? Like I said, optimism doesn't come naturally to me.
'Nobody seems to have a golden key to unlock the problem at the moment but we will not give up and we will persist in our efforts,' the lady chief justice declared yesterday. Perhaps that 2% figure is not so far away after all.
