Hailsham Chambers is fully committed to offering equality of opportunity and opposes all forms of discrimination. 

The set’s members and staff seek to provide services that are readily accessible to all our clients, both lay and professional and strive to create an environment where everyone is respected. Hailsham does not discriminate on the grounds of age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, disability, ethnic origin, nationality, religion or politics and we embrace diversity of thought, politics and approach. 

We adhere to the Bar Council’s policy for equal opportunity and non-discrimination and maintain our own Equality and Diversity Policy which can be accessed here.  We actively seek to promote diversity at the Bar and have put in place a number of measures to encourage and support equal opportunities including:

• Rent pauses for members of Chambers returning from maternity leave
• Subsidised rent for primary carers of young children
• Sabbaticals for all
• Generous maternity and paternity leave
• Monitoring of fair distribution of work

Our recruitment processes are designed to eliminate bias and to offer fair opportunities to all. Staff positions are advertised widely and stringent processes are in place to ensure pupillage applications are fairly assessed for example all applications are blind marked and cross-checked by a representative panel.

Hailsham’s track record in encouraging inclusion and diversity speaks for itself, indeed we were one of the first sets to elect a female Head of Chambers, Jean Ritchie QC, nearly 20 years ago.  However, we recognise that there is much still to be done to ensure a level playing field in the legal profession and our Equality and Diversity Committee meets regularly to monitor progress and to explore how we, as a set, can help to improve the situation for our members, staff, clients and more widely in the community.  Individual members of Chambers contribute to promoting diversity at the Bar including supporting the Wellbeing at the Bar initiative and the Chancery Bar Women’s Group.

Our Diversity Data, published in accordance with the Bar Standards Board’s Rules can be accessed here. Our diversity data officer is Camilla Avery.

If you would like to discuss any element of our policy or approach, particularly if you have suggestions for improvements, please do not hesitate to contact any member of our Diversity Committee: Sarah Christie-Brown or Imran Benson.