Top of the legal profession is still an ‘old boys’ club’, reveal PRIME and Sutton Trust

Diversity, equal opportunity and the end of the ‘old boys network’ remain a long way off in the legal profession, a study by the Sutton Trust and PRIME showing that three quarters of judges and 71% of Queen’s Counsel (QC) barristers were privately educated has revealed.

Only 7% of the population are privately educated, but this tiny elite dominates a high proportion of the top positions in the legal profession, with the study also revealing that one in two partners at magic circle firms attended private school. Initiatives such as PRIME, a group of 89 law firms which works to widen access to work experience in the legal sector, and the Sutton Trust’s Pathways to Law programme are attempting to redress this imbalance, but their findings show that much still needs to be done to increase access to top jobs for talented people from all backgrounds.

A YouGov poll has shown that there is widespread acknowledgment of the need to tackle this issue among law firms, with 52% of the senior lawyers who were asked saying that improving social mobility in the legal profession would benefit their firms, and 71% believing that it would also benefit society more generally. When asked what puts candidates from less-privileged backgrounds at a disadvantage when applying for training contracts, presentation at interview was most frequently identified as the issue, with 23% of respondents saying that this is the problem.

Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust, said: “Today’s findings, in particular the worrying fact that the high proportion of privately educated judges has barely changed since the 1980s, warns us that there is still a big social mobility problem within the legal sector. There have been improvements however, not least in the monitoring of solicitors and in the willingness of big legal firms to work through programmes like PRIME and our Pathways to Law programme. We need to see those efforts redoubled, and to persuade the sceptics that it is vital to get the best talent into law. Irrespective of background, bright young people need to be able to achieve [their] potential and access jobs in law if that is their chosen profession. Enabling greater access to a wider pool of diverse talent will deliver real benefits for employers and employees alike.”