The latest national profile of the legal profession (based on 2016 survey material) shows that female solicitors make up 35,799 or 50.1% of the legal profession in Australia compared to 35,710 or 49.9% of male lawyers.
The rate of growth of women entering the profession is now more than double that of men. We are thus entering a new phase where, for the first time in our history, the makeup of the profession will continue to show a slight gender balance in favor of women.
The rate of growth and the number of female lawyers has underlined the need for law firms and corporate Australia to increase their efforts and strategies to boost the numbers of women in leadership positions. There still remains an
imbalance or bias towards men in more senior roles.
According to Law Society of NSW Chief Executive Officer, Michael Tidball: “We have made significant
advances in all areas of practice to assist the retention and career progression of women in the profession, however impediments still remain. Most employers now have policies for flexible working but a failure to translate those policies into reality is often cited as a main barrier to the advancement of women. The legal profession must assist men and women to better balance their professional and other commitments”.
Other key trends revealed in the report include:
- A fall in the proportion of solicitors working in private practice from 75% to 69% in the past 5 years as a result of significant growth in the number of solicitors working in the corporate sector and Government;
- A mean age of Australian solicitors was
42.4 years. A surprisingly large number –
1 in 12 Solicitors – are aged 65 years or older.
Meanwhile, the youngest age group (24 years or younger) decreased by 14.9% between 2014 and 2016;
- Between 2011 and 2016, the number of private law firms increased 46.2% from 10,632 to 15,539 firms;
- In 2016, a total of 621 solicitors (1.2%) identified themselves as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. Of all 621 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners, the majority (53.1%) were female as opposed to male (46.9%)
The 2016 National Profile of Solicitors in Australia was commissioned by The Law Society of NSW on behalf of the Conference of Law Societies.
John Clarke is the Solicitor Director of Clarke Law with a local network of offices in Narooma, Bermagui.