Birmingham Black Lawyers is a non-profit networking organisation with the aim of promoting diversity within the Birmingham legal community. They provide a platform to support both aspiring and experienced legal professionals from African Caribbean backgrounds with a view to encouraging a greater level of integration by black and other ethnic minorities within the profession and in the longer term, doing their part to redress the under-representation of BAME lawyers in senior positions
They were founded in 2011 by four junior solicitors who saw an opportunity to create a forum for ethnic minorities within the profession, to share ideas and offer support to aspiring solicitors in university and at the start of their careers.
They are continuing to work with Law firms, Chambers and education institutions to increase the number of black role models – bridging the gap for students with no links in the legal community.
BBL has, since its launch in 2011, gained a sizeable following, with over 300 black lawyers, students, trainees and other professionals in the network. They also attract and welcome supporters from outside the legal community to their events in the field of entrepreneurship, media, finance, education and health.
The Legal Ombudsman was set up by the Office for Legal Complaints (our board) and established under the Legal Services Act.
Their job is to help resolve disputes between consumers and legal service providers. They do this by investigating complaints about the service consumers have received from their service provider and working to resolve the situation, and sharing learning from investigations so that providers understand good service and how to resolve complaints themselves.
The Legal Ombudsman is committed to delivering high quality customer service in a timely and flexible way that meets the needs of individuals and ensures a fair investigation and resolution of disputes.
The SRA is the regulator of solicitors and law firms in England and Wales. They regulate more than 200,000 solicitors.
Their purpose is to protect the public by ensuring that solicitors meet high standards, and by acting when risks are identified. The solicitors’ profession includes single-solicitor practices and huge firms with a global presence and thousands of lawyers. Solicitors also work in the justice system, in government and within companies. All solicitors follow the same professional principles and code of conduct. They provide advice to help them do so.
Established in January 2007, the SRA was previously called the Law Society Regulation Board. They changed their name to emphasise our independence and to make what they do clearer.
The Law Society of England and Wales is the independent professional body for solicitors in England and Wales. They are run by and for their members.
Solicitors pay their annual practising certificate fee to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). They receive around 30% of the fee to help fund our work. The rest of their funding comes from commercial activities.
The Law Society Council governs our work. Council members are elected to represent members across England and Wales, including different demographic groups and areas of law.
They use the expertise of our Council members and around 300 volunteer board and committee members to deliver the advice, support and services our members want.
