CILEx, the representative body for 20,000 chartered legal executives, has urged the government to extend judicial eligibility for its lawyers in light of the Lammy Review.
Currently, chartered legal executive lawyers are eligible for judicial roles up to the level of District Judge. CILEx recently launched the CILEx Judicial Development Programme, which will provide its members with one-to-one mentoring from judges, and tailored support in preparing themselves for applying.
CILEx president Millie Grant said David Lammy MP’s recent review into the experience of black, Asian and minority ethnic people in the criminal justice system ‘gives profile to an important issue, and CILEx stands ready to play our part.
‘The recommendations to improve the diversity of the judiciary are critically important, and Chartered Legal Executives are an essential part of the solution. CILEx members are the most diverse group of lawyers in the UK (three-quarters are women, and one third of students are BAME), yet are the least represented group among the judiciary.
‘This is in part because of outdated assumptions about Chartered Legal Executives, but also because there is a glass ceiling that prevents lawyers like me applying for senior judicial roles.’
The Lammy review recommended that the government set a target of 2025 to achieve a representative judiciary and magistracy. He called for ‘race-blind’ prosecutions where information such as name and ethnicity is redacted on files passed to the Crown Prosecution Service. The CPS has since expressed its support for this initiative.
Lammy also recommends introducing a system of ‘sealing’ criminal records, where a judge or independent panel can order that an ex-offender no longer has to disclose his or her record to employers.
