Breakdown of Welsh law firms' workforce diversity

The proportion of women lawyers in Welsh law firms exceeds that of men and is continuing to rise:

• 57% of lawyers are women, no change from 2021
• 40% of lawyers are men down from 41% in 2021
• 0.2% of lawyers preferred another description, up from 0.1% in 2021.

Excluding the prefer not to say responses, women make up 59% of all lawyers in Welsh law firms. This compares to 48% of the Welsh workforce population in 2023.

Differences become more apparent when we look at seniority:

• 35% of full-equity partners are women
• 54% of salaried partners are women
• 68% of solicitors are women.

Looking at trends over time for all partners (as we only have the full-equity and salaried partner split for 2023), the proportion of women at partner level is 41% up from 33% in 2015. Four per cent of partners preferred not to say (up from 2% in 2021) and 2% of solicitors preferred not to say (up from 1% in 2021).

For other staff in Welsh law firms, there was a much higher proportion of women (83%) compared to men (16%), and 2% preferred not to say.

Black, Asian and minority ethnic lawyers made up 5% of all lawyers working in Welsh law firms. The breakdown for this group is:

• 3% Asian
• 0% Black (rounded from 0.49%)
• 2% Multiple/Mixed
• 0% from Other ethnic groups (rounded from 0.2%).

Excluding the prefer not to say responses, Black, Asian and minority ethnic lawyers in Welsh law firms made up 6%, the same proportion as the population of Wales in 2021.

The breakdown for this group is:

• 3.1% Asian (compared to 2.9% of the Welsh population)
• 0.5% Black (compared to 0.9% of the Welsh population)
• 1.8% Multiple/Mixed (compared to 1.6% of the Welsh population)
• 0.2% from Other ethnic groups (compared to 0.9% of the Welsh population).

Looking at seniority:

• The proportion of Black, Asian and minority ethnic full-equity partners in Welsh law firms is 4% compared to 5% of salaried partners.
• The proportion of Black, Asian and minority ethnic partners in Welsh law firms has increased by three percentage points since 2015 (2% to 5%).

There was a larger proportion of full-equity partners who preferred not to say their ethnicity (6%), compared to salaried partners (3%). When looking at partners as a whole, 5% preferred not to say (up from 4% in 2021) compared to 3% of solicitors (up from 2% in 2021).

For other staff in Welsh law firms, the proportion of people from a Black, Asian and minority ethnic background made up 6%, with 2% preferring not to say (no change since 2021).

Seven per cent of lawyers in Welsh law firms declared a disability, compared to 16% of the UK workforce as a whole. This is an increase from 3% in 2015. In 2023, 6% said their activities were limited a little, and 1% a lot.

When we break this down by seniority:

• A larger proportion of full-equity partners declared a disability (5%) than salaried partners (3%).
• 5% of full-equity partners said their activities were limited a little, 2% a lot. 6% of salaried partners said their activities were limited a little, 0% a lot.
• A larger proportion of full-equity partners preferred not to say whether they had a disability (5%), compared to salaried partners (3%).

(Please note that some percentages may show as zero due to rounding.)

Looking at partners as a whole, 5% declared a disability (no change from 2021), compared to 8% of solicitors (up from 6% in 2021).

For other staff in Welsh law firms, 8% declared a disability with 4% preferring not to say.

Parental occupation

We have reported parental occupation in accordance with the national approach, using three categories to indicate socio-economic background:

• The professional (higher) socio-economic category is made up of modern and traditional professional occupations and senior, middle or junior managers or administrators.
• The intermediate socio-economic category is made up of clerical and intermediate occupations and small business owners who employ fewer than 25 people.
• The lower socio-economic (working class) category is made up of technical and craft occupations and long-term unemployed.

Excluding prefer not to say responses, 57% of lawyers working in Welsh law firms are from a professional background. This is compared to 37% across the UK nationally.

Including the prefer not to say responses, the socio-economic background of lawyers in Welsh law firms:

• 52% from a professional background
• 15% from an intermediate background
• 23% from a lower socio-economic background
• 2% other
• 8% preferred not to say.

When we break this down by seniority:

• A larger proportion of salaried partners are from a professional background (59%), compared to full-equity partners (53%).
• Only 17% of full-equity partners are from a lower socioeconomic background compared to salaried partners (20%).
• A larger proportion of full-equity partners preferred not to say (12%), compared to salaried partners (6%).

For other staff in Welsh law firms, the proportion from a professional background (37%) is similar to the proportion from a lower socio-economic background (36%).

School attended

In Welsh law firms, 9% of lawyers went to an independent/fee-paying school, and 2% attended school outside the UK. Eighty-three per cent of lawyers went to a state school.

Excluding the prefer not to say responses, 10% of lawyers went to an independent/fee-paying school compared to 7.5% across the UK nationally.

When we break this down by seniority:

• 12% of full-equity partners attended an independent/fee-paying school, compared to 10% of salaried partners
• 77% of full-equity partners attended a state school, compared to 86% of salaried partners
• 10% full-equity partners preferred not to say compared to 3% of salaried partners.

For other staff in Welsh law firms, 4% attended an independent/fee-paying school, 4% attended school outside the UK, and 87% attended a state school. Five per cent of other staff preferred not to say.

The largest proportion of lawyers in Welsh law firms are in the age category 35-44 (28%), followed by 25-34 (24%) and 45-54 (21%).

Comparative to the whole population of lawyers, there is an aging population of full-equity partners in Welsh law firms. This reflects the usual age career pattern of solicitors and when they might expect to achieve full-equity partnership:

• The largest proportion of full-equity partners are aged 45-54 (31%), and the next largest proportion are aged 55-64 (30%).
• 41% of salaried partners are aged 35-44 and the next largest proportion are aged 45-54 (28%).

Looking at partners as a whole, the largest proportion are aged 45-54 (30%), compared to solicitors where the largest proportion are aged 25-34 (37%).

For other staff in Welsh law firms, there is a more even spread over the age categories with the exception of 65+, but the largest proportion are aged 25-34 (26%).

All percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number. This means some have been rounded down to 0%.

In the 2021 Census, 6% of people in Wales chose not to answer this question, compared to 10% of all lawyers in Welsh law firms answering prefer not to say. When we break down all the faith groups:

• 49% are Christian (compared to 44% of the Welsh population)
• 36% have no religion or belief (compared to 47% of the Welsh population)
• 2% are Muslim (compared to 2% of the Welsh population)
• 1% are Buddhist (compared to 0% of the Welsh population)
• 1% have any other religion or belief (compared to 0% of the Welsh population)
• 0% are Hindu, Jewish or Sikh (compared to 0% of the Welsh population)

Breaking the lawyer population down by seniority:

• 54% of full-equity partners and 57% of salaried partners are Christian
• 1% of full-equity and salaried partners are Muslim
• 28% of full-equity partners and 29% of salaried partners said they had no religion or belief
• 14% of full-equity partners and 11% of salaried partners preferred not to say.

Looking at partners as a whole, 55% are Christian, 1% are Muslim, and all other faith groups round down to 0%. Of solicitors, 45% are Christian, 2% are Muslim, 1% are Buddhist or Hindu, and all other faith groups rounded down to 0%.

For other staff in Welsh law firms, the largest group is no religion or belief (49%), followed by Christian (37%), Muslim and any other religion or belief (1%). Eight per cent of other staff preferred not to say.

Of lawyers working in Welsh law firms, 37% have caring responsibilities for children, and 10% have caring responsibilities for others.

A larger proportion of salaried partners have child-caring responsibilities (47%) than full-equity partners (36%). However, a slightly larger proportion of full-equity partners have other caring responsibilities (11%) than salaried partners (10%).

Looking at partners as a whole, 40% (an increase from 34% in 2015) of partners have child-caring responsibilities compared to 36% (an increase from 33% in 2015) of solicitors. Eleven per cent of partners have other caring responsibilities (down from 19% in 2015) compared to 10% of solicitors (down from 13% in 2015).

For other staff in Welsh law firms, 23% have child-caring responsibilities, and 11% have other caring responsibilities.

Due to small numbers, these statistics are shown to 1 decimal place.

In the 2021 census, 7.6% of the Welsh population did not answer this question, compared to our prefer not to say rate of 7.9%. Across the population of lawyers in Welsh law firms:

• 1.9% answered they were gay or lesbian (compared to 1.5% of the Welsh population)
• 1.9% answered they were bi (compared to 1.2% of the Welsh population)
• 0.3% preferred another description (same as the Welsh population)

Looking at seniority:

• 2% of full-equity partners identify as LGB, compared to 2.7% of salaried partners
• 13.4% of full-equity partners preferred not to say, compared to 6% of salaried partners
• Looking at partners as a whole, 2.2% identify as LGB, compared to 3.2% of solicitors.

For other staff in Welsh law firms, 4.9% identify as LGB and 0.6% prefer another description.

In 2021, 6.3% of the Welsh population chose not to answer this question, compared to our prefer not to say rate of 3.1%. Across the population of lawyers in Welsh law firms:

• 0.9% of lawyers declared their gender identity is different from their sex assigned at birth (compared to 0.4% of the Welsh population)
• This is an increase of 0.3% from 2021.

Looking at seniority:

• 0.5% of full-equity partners said their gender identity is different to their sex registered at birth, compared to 0.3% of salaried partners
• 0.6% of full-equity partners preferred not to say, compared to 2.7% of salaried partners
• Looking at partners as a whole, 0.4% said their gender identity is different to their sex registered at birth, compared to 1.2% of solicitors.

For other staff in Welsh law firms, 1.2% said their gender identity is different to their sex registered at birth. There was an increase of 0.5% since 2021 of prefer not to say responses (1.9% from 1.4% in 2021).