A Slaughter and May 1979 comedy skit amazingly featured a blacked-up lawyer playing a character applying for a training contract — he later became the firm’s senior partner, stepping down in 2008
That social attitudes have evolved — often for the better — over the last 35 years is beyond doubt. And no starker proof in relation to the legal profession can be found than this photograph of the solicitor who went on to become senior partner of magic circle firm Slaughter and May.
Tim Clark was a young assistant solicitor in 1979 when he appeared in a comedy review performed by several S&M lawyers for the wider firm.
He played the part of a Zulu warrior — blacked-up with wig, kitted out in stereotypical grass skirt, but with a tie, and carrying spear and shield. His character in the skit, according to sources close to the production, was seeking articled clerkship (as training contracts were known in them days) and was being interviewed by a Slaughter’s partner.
Here’s a taste of the dialogue, as remembered by a source, who attended the event:
Partner: “I say, isn’t that an Eton tie?”
Zulu: “No — dis am the only tie I haven’t eaten.”
Yes, it pretty much breaks every accepted convention the modern legal profession espouses on equality and diversity.
The photograph — sent to Legal Cheek presumably as a result of our unearthing of the Slaughter and May pre-Christmas party video from 1981 — is very much of a different era. At the time, the firm did not even have a woman partner on its books, let alone a black lawyer at the top table.
Clark — a corporate, finance and mergers and acquisitions specialist — went on to become S&M’s senior partner in 2001, staying in the top slot for seven years. He is probably best known for his work building the firm’s best-friend relations with leading independent law firms, which won many plaudits on the continent.
Clark left Slaughter and May in 2008 and now sits on the advisory board of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank “devoted to making the European Union work better and strengthening its role in the world”.
Clark declined to comment on the 1979 Zulu picture or the comedy review, apart from saying:
“It is now over six years since I retired from Slaughter and May and am not therefore in a position to make any informed comments on the current approaches of City law firms to diversity/inclusion.”
And to be fair, 1979 was a long time ago, when, it can be argued, there were vastly different social different mores — for example, the BBC’s “Black and White Minstrel Show” only finished its 20-year run in 1978. On the other hand, the Brixton riots kicked off just two years later, tearing south London apart in April of 1981 — so issues around race and equality were definitely in the air.
Nonetheless, any young aspiring solicitor when told by senior lawyers to hop to and take part in the firm’s comedy review probably would not have asked too many questions — even as the boot polish and grass skirt beckoned.
Today, Slaughter and May, in common with many City firms, boasts a partner who is meant to keep abreast of equality issues. That lawyer is Ewan Brown, who is responsible “for promoting diversity and inclusion in all areas of the firm”.
The firm’s website states:
“We endeavour to treat everyone — both inside and outside the firm — with attention, courtesy, respect and consideration. We also aim to ensure that our employment opportunities are open and accessible to all based on individual qualities and personal merit.
“At Slaughter and May you will find people from many different religious, racial and social backgrounds. It is our unequivocal policy not to discriminate against anyone — either directly or indirectly — on grounds of race, colour, ethnic or national origin, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, disability, religion or belief, age, part-time or fixed-term status, or on any other irrelevant or irrational basis.”
And contrary to popular views of S&M as being bastion of blue-blood public school snobbery, the firm is by no means at the bottom of the diversity league table.
According to the current Chambers & Partners student guide, 20% of Slaughter’s associates are declared as being from ethnic minorities. That’s not as good as the 28% at Linklaters and the 25% at Allen & Overy, but it is better than the 15% at Freshfields and 13% at Clifford Chance.
Likewise, the Slaughter and May partnership consists of 7% from ethnic minorities — trailing A&O on 9% and Linklaters on 8%, but ahead of Clifford Chance on 5.6% and Freshfields on 3%.
So if that Zulu chap rocked up in reality today at the firm’s Bunhill Row City HQ, Slaughter and May might give him a training contract — even if he hadn’t been at Eton.
When contacted by Legal Cheek, Slaughter and May declined to comment.