Weekes – who is best known for her role as counsel to the Stephen Lawrence enquiry – will oversee the working party as it prepares to make a number of recommendations to Lord Herman Ouseley, who is conducting an independent review of the SRA’s procedures.
Lord Ouseley – a former chair of the Commission for Racial Equality – is set to review case files and examine decision-making processes within the SRA that have led to a high number of cases being brought against minority groups.
Last October the SRA was forced to defend itself against accusations of racial discrimination after the Association of Muslim Lawyers and the Society of Black Lawyers unearthed figures claiming that 63% of the SRA’s misconduct investigations last year came against solicitors from ethnic minority backgrounds.
The two groups claimed the 2006 statistics were evidence that racial bias had been a factor in the SRA’s intervention work, which aims to penalise sub-standard legal practice.
Controversial MP Keith Vaz, the chairman of the House of Commons’ Home Affairs Select Committee also waded into the row.
The SRA argues that the figures quoted are misleading and that the higher proportion of black and ethnic minority lawyers working in small practices or as sole practitioners – a group that is historically and statistically more likely to run into trouble – further distorts the findings.
