Last week, Browne Jacobson sponsored the Black History Month Parliamentary Fair at Portcullis House in Westminster, organised by Connect and hosted by Dawn Butler MP.

The Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons Caroline Nokes, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Olivia Bailey MP, Levi Roots and Dr Aziza Sesay were all in the room, alongside representatives from business, public services, trade unions and civil society. The event centred on one specific question: how do we turn conversations about race equality into something real?

Why we sponsored it

It wasn't a difficult decision. At Browne Jacobson, we're committed to inclusion, not as a brand exercise, but because we believe a more diverse profession is simply a better one. Race equality is one of our firm priorities, and being in that room at Portcullis House, alongside parliamentarians, community organisations and leaders who've dedicated their careers to this work, felt like exactly where we should be. If we're asking others to take race equality seriously, we need to show up, be visible, and put our name to it. Sponsoring this event was one way of doing that.

What was discussed

What struck me most was the honesty in the room. Dawn Butler MP set the tone early, pushing back on those who argue Black History Month is no longer necessary: the fact that people are saying that, she argued, is precisely why it is. She talked about three generations — the resilience of the Windrush generation who came and persevered, the resistance of those who followed, and what she called ‘the revolution’, the current generation on the frontline of change. It was a powerful framing that ran through everything that followed.

The speeches were full of moments that landed hard. The Deputy Speaker spoke about anger, specifically, the kind that gets passed between generations when progress stalls. Baroness Lawrence, Chair of the Race Equality Engagement Group, raised real concerns about maternal health and the risk of yet another set of recommendations sitting unimplemented on a shelf. Olivia Bailey MP, Chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee, cited some stark statistics: Black women are still more than twice as likely to die in childbirth compared with white women, and Black people are almost four times more likely to experience homelessness. Her message was clear: celebration has to go hand in hand with confronting what's still broken. As she put it: 

And then there was Levi Roots, who brought the room together with a tribute to the Windrush generation, the people who answered Britain's call in 1948 with nothing but a suit on their back and a deep desire to work and rebuild their families. His ask to everyone in that room was simple:

It was hard to leave the room without feeling the full weight and responsibility of this request. 

What I talked about and what we're building

I spoke about REACH, Browne Jacobson’s Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage mentoring programme. REACH was built on a very uncomfortable piece of data: just 3% of lawyers in the UK are Black. That figure hasn't moved in decades. And when I think about the fact that I'm one of the less than 1% of all partners of Black heritage in law firms with 10 partners or more, the urgency of doing something about it feels very personal.

So, we did something about it. REACH is a structured, rigorous programme - a real, intentional effort to build a pipeline of Black legal talent into the profession. Participants get paid work experience at Browne Jacobson, monthly skills workshops covering everything from personal branding to commercial awareness, and access to some incredible Black legal role models.

The great news is that it's working: 30% of mentees have gone on to secure a role at Browne Jacobson, and two are now newly qualified lawyers at the firm.

Why this work doesn't stop in November

Events like the Parliamentary Fair matter. They're where connections are made and where firms like ours can demonstrate that our commitment to race equality goes beyond internal policy. Being at Westminster, in conversation with parliamentarians and community leaders doing this work every day, reinforced something I already believed: inclusion only moves forward when people with influence actively choose to be part of the conversation.

At Browne Jacobson, that means showing up during targeted awareness periods, but it also means ensuring REACH is running year-round, sponsoring events like this one, and doing the everyday work of building a legal sector that reflects the world around it. As Olivia Bailey MP put it: "Celebration is important, but it needs all of us to actively confront inequality." Black History Month might be in October, but the work isn't.