SRA’s analysis of diversity in the legal profession revealed

Every two years the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) collects diversity information relating to education, age, gender, ethnicity and sexuality.

While the number of solicitors who went to state school is on the rise, those who went to fee-paying schools are continuing to dominate corporate work.

The SRA found that 21% of lawyers had attended fee-paying schools – 5% with a bursary and 16% without. In 2019 there were 2.75 state-educated solicitors for every lawyer who attended private school – an increase on 2014 when there were 2.6 practitioners from state schools for every privately educated lawyer. Some 7% of the wider UK population are privately educated.

The most recent figures show that about 51% of lawyers have parents with degree-level qualifications and 15% had a parent who worked in one of the ‘traditional’ professions, including law or accountancy.

In terms of age diversity, the SRA’s analysis highlighted that:

• 31% of solicitors were aged between 25 and 34;
• 29% of solicitors were aged between 34 and 44; and
• 22% were aged between 45 to 54.

Unsurprisingly, about one in five partners were aged over 55, while the number of younger practitioners working in-house was even greater than in law firms, with two-thirds aged under 44, and just 8% aged between 55 and 65.

According to Legal Futures, the SRA’s figures also highlight that the number of women solicitors has increased to 49% of all solicitors – rising 1% since 2017 – while just 34% of partners are female; however, when considering firms of 50 partners or more this figure fell to 29%. Of all in-house solicitors, 60% were female.

The number of Asian lawyers increased from 9% in 2014 to 15% in 2019 – a figure which falls to just 5% when firms of 50 partners or more were considered. A higher proportion of BAME lawyers were found in firms doing mainly criminal or private client work – 33% of lawyers in criminal law firms were from a BAME background, while 40% of lawyers at private client firms were. Of the law firms focusing on corporate work, only 15% of their lawyers were from a BAME background.

The analysis indicated no change to the number of lawyers in law firms who identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual (3%) and only 1% of lawyers and 2% of law firm staff confirmed their gender identity to be different to that assigned to them at birth.

Supporting the SRA’s findings from a previous study of 3,000 firms, this diversity analysis found that disabled staff at law firms understate their disabilities; the analysis indicates that only 3% of lawyers actually reveal that they have a disability. This figure is 10% lower than that of the general population.

These figures came from the SRA’s biennial data collection last year, which received a 96% response rate, representing 186,000 people working at 9,500 law firms across England and Wales.

SRA Chief Executive Paul Philip said: “A diverse and inclusive legal profession which reflects the wider community is not only good for the public but for legal businesses themselves.

“That is why it is encouraging to see progress continuing across many areas, although there is clearly much more work to be done.”