In its annual report on solicitors in England and Wales the Law Society has indicated that there are 118,000 people with current practising certificates, out of some 150,000 people on the Society's database (ie inc retired lawyers and those no longer following a legal career), up from 38,000 practising solicitors in 1980.
Women comprise around 50% of all practising solicitors (58% gained first or upper second class degrees in law courses against 54.2% of men). 11.1% of practising solicitors were from minority ethnic backgrounds. Around 75% of solicitors are in private practice, of which 20,245 are in the financial sector in the City. Gender disparities were evident in promotion: the Society reports that 48.1% of all male solicitors in private practice were partners in law firms, in contrast to 21.1.% of women.
The Law Council of Australia reported in September 2009 [PDF] that the Australian legal services sector as of mid-2008 employed 99,696 people comprising 5,154 people who were either barristers or employed by barristers, 5,108 people were employed in community legal services (including legal aid commissions, Aboriginal legal services and community legal centres), 84,921 (85.2%) worked in “other” legal services including private law firms, and 4,514 (4.5 per cent) worked in the offices of government solicitors or public prosecutors.
