diversity in the legal profession

• solicitors regulation or authority report 2017

  • there has been a large increase in female new entrance to the over 60% of new admissions to the role of solicitors in 2016 with female
  • there has been an increase in black asian minority ethnic solicitors over the last 10 years in 2016 asian solicitors accounted for 19% of all new admissions to the roll
  • however partnership remains male dominated men have a 75% chance of making partner for BAME women this is only 13%
  • this shows that females are disadvantage in terms of career progression in the solicitors profession
• social background - class

  • a 2014 social mobility and child poverty commission report found that 70% of job offered for top city law firms go to those educated at selective or private schools
  • this means that intelligent working are excluded. This is partly because such firms recruit students from top universities and these have a higher proportion of privately educated students
• social background - barristers

  • Bar Standards Report, 2018
  • 5% of practising barristers are women and only 14.8% of QCs although this figure is slowly increasing
  • however over half of people barristers [51.7%] are now female
  • 12.7% of barristers are from BAME 7.2% of QCS are BAME
  • These figures are slowly increasing but for sure of the fair in percent of the population who come from BAME backgrounds and show that career progression is a major issue
  • however 16% of pupil barristers come from BAME background which is representative
• social back - barristers

  • 33% of respondents to the BSB’s most recent survey had gone to private schools
  • shows that people from such backgrounds are disproportionately given that only 7% of the population have attended private schools at some point
• diversity in the professions

  overall, the picture is profession which unrepresentative in terms of gender, ethnicity and social class and particularly so when it comes to career progression. however, the position is much better in terms of entrants to the profession.