Newly released data from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), has shown that representation is improving in law firms. The data collected from 186,000 people working at 9,500 law firms across England and Wales shows that nearly half of all solicitors are now women (49%) up 1% since 2017, however, this changes greatly depending on seniority with only 34% of partners being female.
The results also show that the proportion of Asian solicitors has increased from 9% to 15% over the past five years, however, the figure falls to 5% among the larger firms. Among the wider UK workforce, the proportion of Asian employees is 7%. The overall proportion of black solicitors (3%) is broadly in line with the general population.
Paul Philip, SRA Chief Executive has 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.”
The SRA has also released a comparison tool, available here, for firms to compare their own workforce against the results.