A leading figure in the legal world observed recently that law firms “move only as quickly as necessary not to fall behind, and if it doesn’t seem broken there’s no need to fix it”.

The bi-annual SRA diversity survey will be run in late summer this year. The last survey took place in 2019 and saw 96% of firms reporting their data from more than 186,000 people.

With its customary stiff upper lip, the UK legal sector has weathered the pandemic storm amazingly well. But my guess is the numbers disguise growing tensions within many law firms.

More often than not, an M&A deal can present like an episode of Takeshi’s Castle – a challenging obstacle course almost designed to ensure failure, where only the most formidable succeed.

There is, right now, a huge opportunity for good leaders to differentiate their firms with proactive culture building, and to create competitive advantage by getting all staff re-engaged in the firm’s plans.