I wonder how much the Women and Work Commission looked at the effect of public-funding work on women's pay. I am a family law locum solicitor, and over the past three years I have worked in firms all over England (and one in Wales). It is my experience that women far outnumber men in the field of family law, and the gap is getting wider. It seems that many more young women than young men are choosing to do this work.


After crime, family is the largest area of work carried out under public funding. It is likely that this factor is important in producing the result complained of by the commission. Responsibility for at least part of the differential adversely affecting women lawyers must therefore rest squarely with the government, which has discriminated against publicly funded lawyers for the past 15 years.



Perhaps the Law Society ought to carry out a survey of all solicitors involved in publicly-funded work to see whether there are now so many more women doing it that the poor rates of public-funding pay have become discriminatory and thus unlawful. If we could prove that, we might have the stick we need to make Whitehall ensure that legal aid is properly paid for.



Peter Ryder, Middlewich, Cheshire