Concern is mounting over City firms’ failure to support solicitors who want to become judges, Law Society chief executive Des Hudson was expected to tell the Law Society Council this week.

In his monthly report, Hudson also suggests that a ‘similar message’ might emerge from a delayed report from the lord chancellor’s panel on judicial diversity.

Baroness Usha Prashar (pictured), chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission, has agreed to address the Law Society’s City Equality and Diversity Forum on the issue in February. Prashar said it will be an ‘excellent opportunity to promote judicial appointments to the larger firms.’

Many City law firms are perceived to be unwilling to sacrifice their senior lawyers’ billable hours and allow them to sit for three weeks a year as part-time judges, a requirement to qualify for a full-time judicial post.

Law Society president Robert Heslett said: ‘The Law Society and JAC are working to improve understanding across the solicitors profession of the opportunities for judicial appointments, and to help employers support their solicitors who are interested in becoming a judge.

‘We see fewer applicants from larger firms than you might expect would be proportionate, but we are working to increase applications from suitably qualified solicitors in every part of the profession.’

The lord chancellor’s panel on judicial diversity, set up in April and chaired by Baroness Julia Neuberger, was due to report in November. As part of its work to identify the barriers people face when applying for judicial posts, the panel is looking into whether support provided to prospective and new entrants to the judiciary is ‘adequate,’ among other things.

However, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said this week that discussions with a ‘significant number’ of stakeholders have taken longer than expected, and the final report will be published in early 2010. ‘The panel is aware of the issue regarding solicitors but we will wait until the findings of our report are published before commenting,’ the spokesman said.

Research published in December 2008 by Dame Hazel Genn, professor of socio-legal studies at University College London, found that senior solicitors at magic circle law firms were reluctant to accept low judicial salaries, and had only a vague understanding of eligibility criteria and the selection process for judicial posts.