Page 43 - Judicial Diversity Update report

2.54. In terms of intersections between professional background and gender for the
Circuit bench there were no statistically significant findings, however our
analysis found only 16 female solicitors appointed to the Circuit bench in this
time frame, compared with 48 female barristers and three judges with a mixed
professional background.

2.55. In the past, the only aspect of professional background captured by the
statistics was the legal role immediately before appointment. Accordingly, if a
judge had practised as a solicitor for 20 years and then spent five years as a
salaried tribunal judge, the fact that they had trained and worked as a solicitor
was lost. From the 2019 statistics, the JAC has started publishing whether a
candidate was ‘ever’ a solicitor, in addition to capturing the most recent role.

2.56. Our Working Party welcomes the collection and publication of more fulsome
data on professional background. There is, however, a wariness that the ‘ever
solicitor’ category will be used to overstate solicitor representation on the
bench. For example, the RRI for High Court appointees in 2018-2019
increased from 0.56 for solicitors to 0.98 when looking at ‘ever solicitor’ –
indicating near parity with barristers in appointment rates. However, due to
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the small number of applicants and appointees this shift is due to the inclusion
of one (out of ten) ‘ever solicitors’ – Dame Justine Thornton – who qualified
as a barrister before spending nine years at a law firm, returning to the Bar for
13 years before appointment. The other appointees comprised two solicitors
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and seven barristers.

Recorders and Deputy High Court Judges

2.57. Solicitors continue to struggle to get appointed to the two key feeder roles to
senior appointment. Our analysis of the 2017-2018 Recorder exercise reveals
that solicitors represented 28% of applicants and 4% of those recommended
for appointment. The proportion of solicitors appointed in the 2018-2019

98 Judicial Appointments Commission, ‘JAC Official Statistics: Statistics tables 2018–19’ (Table 3:
High Court Judge) available online at https://www.judicialappointments.gov.uk/jac-official-statistics
99 ‘High Court Judges 2018’, Judicial Appointments Commission, available online at
https://www.judicialappointments.gov.uk/high-court-judges-2018
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