There's a version of this conversation that goes: that's an American issue, not ours. But the D&I backlash has landed in the UK legal market whether firms want to acknowledge it or not. And the US experience doesn't just tell us what's happening now - it tells us what can happen next.
What Happened in the US
In January 2025, Trump signed executive orders directing federal contractors to halt diversity programmes. What followed was swift and uncomfortable. Nine of the most prominent US law firms - including Paul Weiss, Skadden, Willkie Farr, Kirkland & Ellis, and Latham & Watkins - struck deals with the administration to avoid being targeted. The terms: scrap D&I initiatives, pledge hundreds of millions in pro bono work aligned with the administration's priorities, and commit to hiring across the political spectrum.
Latham and Hogan Lovells quietly removed D&I content from their websites. Skadden cancelled all future events for its employee affinity groups. The firms that refused - Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, Perkins Coie - fought back through the courts.
The Human Cost: Associates Who Walked
What made this more than a governance story was the personal response from within those firms. At Skadden, associate Brenna Trout Frey published a viral LinkedIn post describing the firm's deal as "capitulating" to Trump's "demands for fealty and protection money" - declaring resignation the "only acceptable response." It drew nearly 15,000 interactions. A Latham associate also publicly resigned, part of a broader wave of departures across firms that chose to comply.
These weren't people leaving for better offers. They were experienced lawyers making a values-based decision - a talent consequence no partnership can fully price in advance. Meanwhile, the firms that held the line picked up clients. Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, and Oracle were among those who moved instructions away from firms that capitulated towards those that fought back.
Sound Familiar? It Should.
The UK legal market today looks a lot like the US did a few years ago - when D&I had become more of a buzzword than a genuine hiring model. Statements were published, targets set, initiatives launched. But talent teams often weren't integrating D&I thinking into day-to-day hiring in any meaningful way. It sat adjacent to the work rather than inside it.
That gap between rhetoric and practice is what made US firms so vulnerable when the political wind changed. Firms that proclaimed D&I commitments abandoned them overnight; handing their opponents exactly the ammunition the needed.
The UK isn't immune. With a more conservative political mood taking hold across parts of Europe and domestic debate intensifying, the question of whether a future government might move to strip back D&I frameworks isn't far-fetched. The US trajectory serves as a cautionary tale; ask the question now while there is still time.
A recent in-house lawyer survey found that the majority of respondents no longer consider a firm's D&I approach an important factor when choosing who to instruct - some calling it "passé." Others noted they'd seen firms change their diversity language after the US political shift, which only confirmed their suspicion it was always surface-level. These clients aren't anti-D&I. They're anti-theatre.
What UK Firms Should Do Now
Get honest about your data. What does representation look like at each level? Where do people from underrepresented backgrounds move? Are promotion processes genuinely equitable, or do informal networks still dominate?
Decouple your UK strategy from US political weather. Your obligations under the Equality Act 2010 haven't changed. Firms that tied their D&I language too closely to global corporate trends are now being buffeted by global political trends - that's a structural vulnerability, not just a comms problem.
Shift from initiatives to outcomes. The most defensible D&I work isn't a mentoring programme with a catchy name. It's structured promotion criteria, pay equity audits with published results, and assignment tracking that ensures diverse associates get meaningful work. Things you can point to, defend, and build on regardless of political climate.
Invest in social mobility. This is where UK firms are seeing genuine innovation and where political headwinds are weakest. The business case is self-evident, and it tends to survive changes of government.
The D&I backlash, at its core, is a backlash against institutional posturing. The antidote isn't silence - it's substance, built deeply enough into how a firm actually operates that no political headwind can dislodge it overnight. The US cautionary tale is still being written. UK law firms have the advantage of watching it unfold in real time.
At Birchrose Associates, we work with law firms across the UK on talent strategy, recruitment, and building cultures where the best people - from every background - can do their best work. Get in touch if you'd like to talk.
