Page 40 - Judicial Diversity Update report

roles, meaning that they were ‘invisible’ in the official statistics as approached
at the time. From 2019, the JAC statistics have also captured ‘ever solicitor’
candidates. The two appointments in 2018-2019 were of solicitors directly
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from practice.

2.49. While we now have more solicitors in the High Court than at any other time,
since 2014 the overall numbers of non-barrister judges have decreased by 3%
overall and are down 5% for tribunals. This decline is due in part to the high
92
proportion of judges from solicitor background who leave the judiciary. In
2018/19, there was a greater proportion of non-barristers leaving the courts’
judiciary (39%) than those joining (32%). This trend is in contrast with the
93
positive retention figures for women and BAME judges. We are unaware of
any explanation for why non-barrister judges would leave the judiciary and
how this might be correlated with different leaving patterns of other groups.
This requires examination.

91 Though we note that both of the individuals appointed had fee-paid experience: Sir Edward Murray
and Dame Sarah Falk were both recruited directly from their law firms, where they were consultants
while undertaking fee paid sitting, as a Recorder and UT judge respectively.
92 Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, ‘Judicial Diversity Statistics 2019’, July 2019, (Figure 13), available
online at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Judicial-Diversity-Statistics-2019.pdf
93 Ibid, p.14
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