EVENTS

Let’s Talk about Racial Diversity in the Scottish Legal Profession

Thursday 5th February 2026

5:30pm

CMS Boardrooms, 1 West Regent Street, Glasgow G2 1AP

CMS Scotland’s South Asian, Sikh and Hindu (“SASH”) and EmbRACE Inclusion Networks proudly welcome you
to their panel event on Thursday 5 February 2026, celebrating Race Equality Week.

To mark this important occasion, panellists will share their experiences within the Scottish legal sector, celebrating successes achieved by minority communities whilst also highlighting ongoing challenges.

The aim of this event is to foster an ongoing dialogue about race, identifying and sharing actionable strategies that organisations, firms, and individuals can collectively implement to improve inclusion and representation.

Our panel includes:

Neeraj Thomas - Partner at CMS
Usman Tariq - KC at Ampersand Advocates
Dr Naeema Yaqoob Sajid - Founder of Diversity+
Rupa Mooker – Inclusion, Diversity & Belonging Manager at Ashurst
Jamila Archibald-Ramage - Senior Legal Counsel at Trip.com

The approximate running of the event will be as follows:

5.30pm - Registration
6pm - Welcome and panel discussion
6.45pm - Q&A and closing remarks
7pm - Networking, food and drinks

BWS Women in Law Awards

Entries close: Friday 6th February 2026

Awards Lunch: Thursday 12th March 2026

Celebrating Women in Law in Scotland!

The Business Women in Scotland (BWS) Women in Law Awards are open to individuals and teams in private practice and in-house, at law firms and companies who are based in Scotland or providing services in Scotland.

Entries are now OPEN for self-nominations or nominating someone else. Key dates are:

Award entries open: 14 Oct 2025
Entries close 6 Feb 2026
Judging 10th Feb 2026
Shortlist announced 12th Feb 2026
Awards lunch & ceremony: 12 Mar 2026

Learn more about the categories and enter on the Business Women Scotland website

Race Equality Week: Let’s Share, Listen, and Learn

Friday 6th February 2026

1:00 - 1:30 PM

Online

Race Equality Week comes around every February and provides us an opportunity to reflect on the history of racial inequality, the progress we have made towards a more equal society, and where improvement is still needed.

The theme for 2026 is #ChangeNeedsAllOfUs.

While we may not all agree with awareness days and themes, as human beings, we all need to connect, learn and share to reduce our bias and prejudice.

For this event, we would like to invite you to reflect with us. This will be an informal event where attendees are encouraged to share their views.

How have you celebrated Race Equality Week this year?

Where do you think progress has been made?

What challenges are you foreseeing for your business or society as a whole?

What does Race Equality Week mean for you?

What do you think of this year's theme?

Join us for this free chat, and let's together pave the way towards racial equality in the legal sector and beyond.

Registrater for free now

How can we communicate better to support and retain female talent?

Monday 16th February 2026

By invitation only (further workshops to follow)

Diversity+ in collaboration with Look Up and Beyond and Heart in Mouth, is trialing the first of its kind interactive, in-person communication workshop to better understand the barriers that prevent the retention and advancement of female talent within the Scottish legal profession.

The pipeline of talent in the Scottish legal profession is increasingly female.

57% of the legal profession in Scotland are women
Of those under 30, the figure grows to 67%

But increasingly, female talent is being lost or is unable to excel. What is causing this? How do we stop this? And what can we do to retain and advance female talent?

The aims of the workshop are:

To create a safe place to share experiences and raise concerns
Using those shared experiences, to better understand the issues
Find fitting solutions to the issues

Outcomes will be widely shared, and if successful, further workshops will be delivered as a
profession-wide campaign to make improvements.

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Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Certification Course for Leaders and Managers

TBC

ONLINE

We are delighted that, for the third time, we are running this EDI Certification Course for Leaders and Managers in collaboration with the Law Society of Scotland.

Completed over two days and qualifying for 20 hours of CPD, this course will provide you the stepping stone you need to foster and promote a lasting culture of equality, diversity and inclusion to help you drive progress and help futureproof your firm.

Practical discussions will be led by Naeema Yaqoob Sajid (Diversity+ Founder), other industry experts, and those with lived experience. Taking part in this certification course, you will gain:

A clear understanding of the moral, legal and business imperatives to driving progress and action in the EDI field.
Effective strategies for embedding EDI into your organisation.
Enhanced understanding of how a leader uses their own personal insights and knowledge to drive and facilitate change within an organisation, including awareness, acceptance and use of power and privilege.
Knowledge and comprehension of emotional and cultural intelligence to improve talent retention, innovation and business development.
Understanding of the role leaders have in promoting and fostering a lasting culture of equality, diversity and inclusion to help future-proof workplaces
A free demonstration of our first-of-its-kind Calculator of Privilege tool

Learn more via the Law Society of Scotland

Reveal your Ally: Allyship in the Scottish Legal Sector

Postponed - TBC

Who is your ally and why?

In collaboration with the Law Society of Scotland and the Edinburgh Foundation for Women in Law (University of Edinburgh), Diversity+ brings you this in-person event, celebrating women and their supportive allies, everywhere.

This event is designed for us to embrace and reveal the allies in our lives that support us, personally or professionally - those key individuals we turn to for guidance, sense checks and support when we feel vulnerable and unsure or when we are looking to advance our careers.

Attendees are encouraged to bring ‘their plus one’ to this event and share first-hand how the power of allyship helps them reach their career goals.

Registration will be announced via our newsletter - sign up here