Sandra Wallace
Biography
Sandra is a Partner and Joint Managing Director for the UK & Europe at DLA Piper, a global law firm active across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.
She serves on DLA Piper’s Executive Board and its Diversity and Inclusion Council.
For two years, she was also Head of Diversity within the International Employment team.
Sandra previously held the roles of UK Managing Partner and UK Employment Group Head at the firm, which she joined as a trainee after qualifying as a lawyer in 1994.
Interim Chair - Social Mobility Commission
Sandra was the first of her family of six to go to university, and came from a background where the law seemed as far from her world as it could be.
She graduated from Wolverhampton University to become a trainee solicitor at DLA Piper; eventually rising to her current role. On the way, she overcame many educational and social barriers, including, in her own words, the ‘imposter syndrome’.
Sandra is determined to drive social mobility within the legal sector, and has been recognised for her work in helping those from less-privileged socio-economic backgrounds to succeed.
This includes the Head Start UK programme, which provides support for talented young people facing economic, social and/or cultural barriers to entering the legal profession.
Students (known as Head Start Scholars) join the programme in Year 12, (S5 in Scotland) at the start of their A levels/Highers. This multi-year programme provides support from secondary school through to university and beyond.
She is also active in her firm’s global social mobility initiative, the DLA Piper Foundation, which aims to help talented and ambitious young people achieve their full potential; improve diversity in the legal profession; and contribute to the rule of law globally.
As a commissioner and then Co-Chair of the Social Mobility Commission, Sandra is passionate about tackling regional disparities, and was instrumental in helping to develop our Employer Toolkit to help organisations increase socio-economic diversity within the workplace.
She has spoken extensively to employers, the legal sector and other professional bodies about diversity and inclusion, improving social economic disadvantage and ‘code switching’ – a term used to cover people of varied ethnicities and backgrounds, who feel they need to change to fit into professional environments.
Sandra is a recipient of the Birmingham Law Society Leadership Award. She is also recognised on the Powerlist 100 for British people of African, African Caribbean or African American heritage who have risen to the top of their profession. She has also been awarded Champion of the Year at the Social Mobility Awards.