When Mark Harding, general counsel at Barclays, issued a statement in 2006 calling for his external law firms to provide their diversity statistics, he was not prepared for the storm of interest it created. He had no idea that this simple act would commend him as a leader on diversity issues.

Since then, several general counsels have used their clout as clients to push diversity up law firm agendas. Anne Fletcher, general counsel at BT, the information technology services company, has built diversity into their selection process of outside law firms. BT is both sponsoring and helping to frame the Law Society’s diversity charter and has set up a programme to promote diversity.