Page 39 - Judicial Diversity Update report

Professional background

Sitting cohort 2019

Table 5. Proportion of judges from solicitor background in senior courts (2017-2019)

2017 2018 2019
N % N % N %
Supreme Court 0 - 0 - 0 -
Court of Appeal 1 3% 1 2.7% 1 2.5%
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High Court 0 0% 2 2% 4 4%
Circuit Bench 70 11% 83 12.6% 88 13%
All senior courts 71 9% 86 (804) 10.7% 93 (818) 11.3%
All courts (exc. 1,063 34% 1,003 33.7% 1,052 32.7%
Tribunals)

2.47. As the table highlights, roughly 33% of all judges in England and Wales are
from a non-barrister background, including a handful of Chartered Legal
Executives, though mostly solicitors. While the majority (63%) of tribunal
89
judges are solicitors, this percentage drops sharply when looking at solicitor
judges in the courts, and even further in the senior courts.
90

2.48. Since our 2017 report, four judges who spent most of their careers practising
as solicitors have been appointed to the High Court. The two solicitor
appointments in 2017-2018 were both appointed directly from salaried tribunal

88 This figure does not capture the most recent appointments to High Court announced from July 2018,
which were not included in the official statistics published in 2018.
89 Chartered Legal Executives are only eligible to apply for a limited number of exercises: CILEx fellows
cannot be appointed any higher than District Judge in the court system; and no higher than the First-tier
Tribunal in the tribunal system. Given this Update’s focus on the senior judiciary, CILEx are rarely
referred to. See: ‘Chartered Legal Executives as Judges’, CILEx, available online at
https://www.cilex.org.uk/about_cilex/about-cilex-lawyers/why-be-a-cilex-lawyer/cilex-judges.
90 In its November 2017 follow up report the House of Lords Select Committee on Constitution Affairs
acknowledged the low success rates for applicants from a non-barrister background. See Select
Committee on the Constitution ‘Judicial Appointments: follow-up’ (published 2 November 2017),
available at: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201719/ldselect/ldconst/32/32.pdf)
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