Page 55 - Judicial Diversity Update report

2.82. For Queens Counsel, the Sutton Trust estimates that nearly 71% of leading
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QCs attended a private school, which is higher than the 54% recorded by the
BSB. 129

2.83. In respect of solicitors, 68% of UK educated solicitors at partner level or
equivalent attended state schools, indicating that solicitors represent a more
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diverse pool than the bar in respect of socio-economic background (albeit a
disproportionate number of partners still attended private school in relation to
the proportion of the population who do so).

Conclusions on socio-economic background

2.84. The data overwhelmingly shows that lawyers who have attended private
schools and Oxbridge are more likely to find their way into the senior judiciary
than those who attended state school and other universities. Whilst as noted
above in paragraph 2.71, these metrics on their own are not exact – or best
practice proxies – for socio-economic background, they give a strong
indication that the judiciary is comprised disproportionately of individuals
from higher socio-economic backgrounds. There is insufficient information to
be able to gauge how or why this is the case.

2.85. As far back as 1972, JUSTICE recognised that the narrow social background
of the judiciary meant that the life experiences of judges were often far
removed from those of the people appearing before them in court, whose
conduct and evidence they were evaluating. It recognised that ‘[w]ith few
exceptions judges have not had the opportunity to acquire first-hand
knowledge of the problems of poverty or of the different pressures, loyalties
and social values that operate in strata of society other than their own.’ These
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observations resonate and may well be more acute today. It must be the case
that the narrow social background of the senior judiciary affects the way in

128 P. Kirby, Leading People 2016, The educational backgrounds of the UK professional elite, The
Sutton Trust, 2016, available online at https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-
content/uploads/2020/01/Leading-People_Feb16.pdf.
129 Bar Standards Board, Diversity at the Bar 2018, February 2019, p.19.
130 P. Kirby, Leading People 2016, The educational backgrounds of the UK professional elite, The
Sutton Trust, 2016, p.4, available online at https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/02/Leading-People_Feb16.pdf
131 JUSTICE, The Judiciary: The Report of a Justice Sub-Committee, 1972, para 47.
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