60 seconds with... Lindsay Jack, Head of Diversity, Careers and Outreach at the Law Society

As Lindsay Jack, the Law Society of Scotland’s new Head of Diversity, Careers and Outreach, reaches six months in the job, she talks to Sophie McIvor about her plans for the year, why it’s important firms prioritise equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives and what motivated her to join the Law Society.

Hello, and thank you! I’ve had five roles since I left university, and each opportunity has fed beautifully into the next, even if the plan wasn’t necessarily clear at the time.

My first job after graduating was in university admissions, then I moved on to widening participation at a multi-partner programme, LEAPS. This gave me a grounding in work that would become one of the core tenets of my future career. In 2004 I made a move to the WS Society and latterly became its education manager, running the Professional Competence Course (the pre-cursor to PEAT 2) and organising CPD [continuing professional development]. I was there at a pivotal time for the society as it sought to modernise and refresh. Working there opened doors I didn’t even know existed and I began making connections in the legal profession, some of whom I still work with today.

Next came Edinburgh Law School, where a role came up that allowed me to bring together law and widening participation – a definite pattern was emerging! I started in a part-time administrative role as Widening Participation Officer and ended in a full-time academic role as Director of Student Experience with expertise across social mobility, diversity, inclusion and belonging. My time at Edinburgh offered me the chance to take and make multiple opportunities and employ creativity in how I approached my role. Higher education is an absorbing sector, and universities are never dull with so much scope for innovation, partnership working and learning.

I would describe this role as the perfect next step in my career. I had worked with the Law Society for a long time on many of the areas that now fall into my remit, so when I knew that a role might come up that included social mobility, careers, outreach and diversity, I jumped at the chance to be considered for it.

I knew the teams I was moving to work with were dedicated and passionate, and I was ready to take the experience, passion and drive I had to lead all this work from a Scotland-wide perspective. It is a wide-ranging remit, but I’d struggle to think of any part of it as not interconnected with the others.

Legal duties aside, as a sector we have a particular responsibility in this area as the services we offer must be truly accessible to all who may need them, which is everyone. Also, the possibility of a career in law should be open to everyone with the talent and drive to succeed. When those form part of our core values as a profession then no rollback can take those away from us. Some under-represented and marginalised people watching this global push back against initiatives see a potential loss of belonging and a loss of opportunity. That’s dreadful, and it goes directly against the values we uphold as a profession.

Personally, I aim to broaden and deepen the conversations around social mobility and diversity, and encourage more collaboration across the profession.

The Law Society has an “overarching objective of leading legal excellence and strives to excel and to be a world-class professional body, understanding and serving the needs of our members and the public”. I fundamentally don’t see how we can uphold that without ensuring equity of access to the profession, both for users of legal services and as members. We cannot be world-class and understand the needs of all if we don’t include all.

I would urge anyone concerned about any rollback of this work in their organisation and how it relates to them or their colleagues to contact us without hesitation.

It’s a very important area of focus for us, and it’s complex. In terms of recruitment, what always comes up for me is the change in the way people approach finding jobs now, and how we always need to stay ahead of that. I won’t get into the intergenerational piece (which can sometimes be more divisive at its core if done fleetingly and we don’t have time to do it justice here) but we all know that there has been a shift in what people want from their careers and from their lives. People more generally no longer necessarily have the same aspirations that colleagues might traditionally have had and so we need to think about that. There is a very welcome societal shift in the way we talk about, and the fact we do talk about, values and wellbeing, and life/work.

We also all have a plethora of information at our fingertips when researching opportunities and organisations, so people can make more informed choices about the organisations they think they want to work for. And of course, different organisations have differing levels of resource to put into that.

Through our careers and outreach work we hear directly from aspiring solicitors, and we aim to facilitate conversations between them and the profession. We’re developing a reverse mentoring programme to sit alongside our current mentoring offering, which will further accelerate those connections.

In retention, our wellbeing strategy includes a commitment to creating a retention guide to bring a lot of this work together, and part of informing that will be gathering case studies. We’ll be working to understand the main pinch points, focusing on specific challenges that affect different sectors and groups.

The theme across our diversity work for 2025 is ‘Change the Culture’ and we aim to do that by creating connections and showcasing and celebrating good practice. A lot of this work comes back to organisational culture, and how we experience our organisations and the profession. We should learn from those who are doing it well, and support those who want to do better. One way we’re doing this is through two networks: one new, and one revived. The first is the launch of WIDEN, which is for those leading on wellbeing, inclusion, diversity and equity in and for the profession. The second is bringing back our Social Mobility Network, which again provides a way to tackle issues and showcase great examples of work in this area.

Personally, I aim to broaden and deepen the conversations around social mobility and diversity, and encourage more collaboration across the profession.

I have two primary-aged children, and they keep me happily busy as does home life more generally. Friends and family are an important part of my life, and I count myself lucky in that regard too. I always make time for creativity and you’ll find me crafting something most days, from crochet to sewing to homewares and most things in between! And I listen to, or read, books almost every day.

I enjoy volunteering, and I’m on three different charity boards; two are work-related and one is based in my local community.