Latest official statistics paint a picture of a solicitors’ profession that is changing fast. Neil Rose delves into the details

When the Law Society was set up in 1825, its members were exclusively male – it was another 97 years before the first woman was admitted as a solicitor. By the time Chancery Lane reaches its bicentenary, there is a good chance that men will make up just one-third of all solicitors.


On the basis of recent trends, there will be more than a quarter of a million solicitors by 2025, and women will be firmly in control. Within a further 20 years, on current growth, the number of solicitors will be reaching the million mark and men will be down to a small minority – just 15%.


The massive influx of women into the profession over the past 30 years is fast changing its demographics. But this growth rate is surely likely to slow down at some point – there are already wider efforts to look at under-achievement by boys at school, for one thing – and so the male solicitor may not be an endangered species quite yet.


But the Law Society’s annual statistical report (ASR), released last month, shows just how fast things have changed over the past 30 years. In 1974, just 6% (2,225) of the 36,150 solicitors on the roll were women. As at 31 July 2004, it was 42% (50,375) out of 121,165. As a result, there are now more female solicitors under the age of 40 than men.


The profession has seen a steady 4% annual growth in the number of practising solicitors over the past three decades. While this may not sound much, it amounts to a 237% increase since 1974, when there were just 28,741 practising solicitors. Last year, there were 96,757. These figures also do not take account of the fact that a proportion of the 24,408 non-practising solicitors currently on the roll are likely to be employed lawyers who do not need practising certificates to work.


Women make up 46% of non-practising solicitors and this is likely to be down to both the traditional career-break reasons and also the fact that they are more likely to be employed lawyers, a category itself that has grown steadily over the years. Of those with practising certificates, 27% of women work outside private practice, compared to 19% of men.


There is little sign that the march of women solicitors will decelerate for the time being: 63% of new postgraduate law students last year were women, as were 57% of newly qualifieds.


In fact, the growth of the profession generally continues apace. Some 13,000 undergraduate law students were accepted in 2003, up 10%, the same increase for the current academic year in the number of full-time and part-time places on the legal practice course (LPC) – to 10,601.


This was fuelled in the main by a big expansion at BPP Law School in London and Leeds (the Manchester branch, opening this September, is not yet included); new courses at Liverpool John Moores University and Swansea University; and the College of Law almost doubling its part-time places to 1,120.


At the same time, the number of new traineeships registered with the Law Society in 2003/04 was only 1% up on the previous year at 5,708. However, looking back, the number has risen almost 50% in a decade.


Do these findings indicate a return to the bad old days of the mid 1990s, when law schools were churning out far too many students for the available training contracts? During that time, some students applied to literally hundreds of law firms, and many ended up having to abandon a legal career despite having run up debts to pay for the LPC. There was even a short-lived and controversial decision by the Law Society in 1997/98 to freeze LPC places in an effort to control the problem.


It would seem that, for the time being at least, the situation is not out of hand. For one thing, not all LPC places are filled. In addition, around 20% of the 7,426 students who took the exam in 2004 failed, although more than half of those were referred and may well get through eventually.


It is a delicate balance to get right – firms need to be able to have some choice in the trainees they recruit, while ensuring that the excess of students over contracts does not get out of hand.


Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva says: ‘Many undergraduates choose to do law degrees without intending to become solicitors. Studying law is regarded as a good preparation for a number of other careers.


‘There is a steady upward trend in the number of training contracts. The 2004 figures show the highest-ever number – with 5,708 registered. Meanwhile, 6,258 students passed the LPC at their first attempt. While this is unfortunate for those trying to secure a training contact, it is not a huge mismatch. Firms need to be able to recruit the best applicants.


‘However, the Law Society is keen to give a clear health warning to students that passing the LPC does not guarantee that you will qualify as a solicitor, and competition for training places is strong.’


Unfortunately, it is once women start working at law firms that their problems start. Nationally, male trainees are paid 7% more than female trainees (£20,835 as against £19,504). Looking post-qualification, meanwhile, just 22% of women solicitors are partners, less than half the proportion of men (47%); separate Law Society research last year indicated that women partners are paid less too.


This is partly explained by the fact that at the senior end of the profession, in age terms, it is still men in the majority, but not totally.


The report breaks down the status of male and female solicitors when analysed by their experience (years since qualification). In every group, even for those who have been qualified for more than 30 years, men are far more likely to be partners. Career breaks for children may go some way to explaining the disparity at the lower end of the experience range, but it does not wash so easily at the top (where, in fairness, the gap is smaller).


Unfortunately, the bare figures do not necessarily provide explanations. As yet another example, why are men twice as likely as women to be sole practitioners?


That category of practice accounts for 45% of all 9,211 law firms, followed by firms of two-to-four partners (40%), five-to-ten partners (10%), 11-to-25 partners (3.6%), 26-to-80 partners (1.2%) and 81-plus partners (0.3%). However, those 31 largest firms employ 22% of all solicitors in private practice. A further 15% work in the 26-to-80 partner firms.


It is curious that while the number of solicitors continues to rise, the number of places for them to work in is shrinking. This year’s law firm total is the first, albeit tiny, rise in several years (it was 9,983 in 1999), while the number of offices those firms had in total has fallen over five years from 13,818 to 12,579.


If this all leads people to think about striking out on their own as a sole practitioner, there is one clear benefit – it does at least guarantee that you own the business. The figures indicate that over the past decade, it has become increasingly hard to become a partner at other law firms. While in 1994, 50% of all solicitors in private practice were partners, that figure was down to 37% last year.


Ms Paraskeva suggests that the declining opportunities for partnership ‘is evidence of firms implementing efficient business models in an increasingly competitive legal services market’.


Much of the news, both good and bad, is replicated for ethnic minority solicitors, albeit that the numbers are smaller. Some 8.3% of solicitors with practising certificates, and 9.2% of those on the roll, came from an ethnic minority, both figures that have increased on 2003, when the practising figure matched the national population at 7.9%. It is 24% for postgraduate law students, highlighting the growing appeal of the profession to people from ethnic minorities.


The bad news again comes in status. While 39% of white European solicitors are partners, just 23% of those from ethnic minorities are. But unlike women, the figures hint that this has pushed them quite literally into taking matters into their own hands – 8.3% of ethnic minority solicitors are sole practitioners, compared to 5.3% of white Europeans.


Overall, the ASR paints a picture of a profession that is both growing and changing fast. But if you are worried about increasing competition, Finland is the place to go. A Gazette analysis of a survey of the number of lawyers in every European country, produced last year by the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), finds that across the UK, there is approximately one lawyer (solicitor or barrister) for every 500 people.


That is higher than some places – Liechtenstein may only have 106 lawyers, but a population of 34,000 makes a ratio of 1:320, similar to Spain and Greece – but lower than many others. Of the larger nations, despite having the same population, France has one-third of the number of lawyers (40,000) of the UK, But nobody compares with Finland.


Finland has the most liberal regime for legal work on the continent. Nothing is reserved. Conveyancing, litigation, probate – anyone can do it. But with just 1,662 actual lawyers serving 5.2 million people, a ratio of 1:3,129, might it be worth a shot anyway?