In the South African legal fraternity, many organisations already report on key aspects of diversity and inclusion (DEI), notably race and gender, as part of BBBEE and other sustainability reporting.

In addition, DEI programmes are already common in both corporates and law firms. There has been much good work done within these programmatic efforts and it must be noted that we are advocating for augmenting - rather than replacing - them.

Despite efforts, there are a number of overarching general areas requiring improvement in the South African legal fraternity. Our research notes that race and gender are still important elements where ongoing work is required, and also suggests that there are commonly gaps in adequately addressing gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, religion and culture, and socio-economic background and status.

Metrics and KPIs relating to DEI are an important tool to help organisations prioritise and reward efforts, and track progress against goals.