Solicitors are to be targeted for judicial posts under a government recruitment drive aimed at the 60,000 members of the profession eligible to apply.

A series of initiatives will be launched by the government this week to promote applications from what the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, will call 'a huge untapped pool of talent'.



The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) has written to 6,500 solicitors to raise awareness of judicial opportunities among those who recently qualified to apply for judicial posts through holding rights of audience for seven years. This will be backed by an advertising campaign. Solicitors who undertake a judicial work shadow scheme will be able to earn continuing professional development points (see [2005] Gazette, 27 October, 37).



A DCA spokesman said it hoped recruiting more solicitors - who are drawn from a wider range of backgrounds than barristers - will increase the diversity of the judiciary.


Further measures include career breaks for salaried judges and an action plan to ensure disabled lawyers do not encounter barriers to appointment. The DCA will launch a pilot scheme for circuit judges to mentor district judges, while judges below the High Court may be allowed to return to practice.


Senior immigration judge and solicitor Judith Gleeson said: 'Considering how long women and minority ethnic people have been in the solicitors' profession, it is profoundly disappointing that their presence is still so poorly reflected in the senior judiciary.


'There is a lack of role models [for solicitors] in the judiciary, and solicitors see advertisements for judicial posts as not affecting them. It is a problem of perception.'


Speaking for the Bar Council, criminal law barrister John Cooper said: 'I would strongly dispute that the modern bar is less diverse than the solicitors' profession. But the bar has no concerns about solicitor judges.'


Law Society President Kevin Martin said improvements to the way judges are appointed and greater career flexibility should be incentives for more solicitors to consider judicial careers.