Did you know…
- The UK legal services sector employs over 300,000 people
- Legal services contribute 1.8% of Britain’s GDP
- Between 2000 and 2010 invisible exports by law firms have tripled in value to £2.9bn
- In 2009/10 there were 117,862 solicitors and 15,270 barristers in practice, together with some 22,000 trainee and practising legal executives in England and Wales
- In 2009/10 women made up 45.9% of solicitors with practising certificates (and about a fifth of the partners at the ‘top 100′ law firms)
- In 2009/10 women constituted 34.4% of the Bar (including 11% of Queen’s Counsel)
- 11.1% of solicitors and 10.1% of barristers in practice are from black and minority ethnic groups
- In 2010 1.7% of firms employed 41.6% of solicitors in private practice
- There were 4,874 new training contracts registered in 2009/10, a decrease of 16% on the previous year.
- In the same year 11,370 full time and 3,140 part-time Legal Practice Course places were available.
- 460 ‘First Six’ pupillages were registered in 2009/10, a decrease of 0.6%; 1,432 students had passed the Bar Professional Training Course in 2008/09
- 13,433 students graduated with Qualifying Law Degrees in the summer of 2009
- Over half (56.6%) of the QLD graduates in 2009 received first or upper second class degrees.
- CILEx has 19,176 members
- 73% of CILEx members are female
- In 2009 there were 29,211 applicants to study for a first degree in law in England and Wales; slightly over two-thirds of these were accepted.
Sources:
Office of National Statistics
Bar Barometer: Trends in the Profile of the Bar, (General Council of the Bar/Bar Standards Board, March 2011)
Chartered Institute of Legal Executives
Trends in the Solicitors’ Profession: Annual Statistical Report 2010, (The Law Society, 2010).
