Your guide to the legal profession 2021/22
updated on 28 September 2021
In this guide we outline some of the key issues facing the UK legal profession, as well as headline-grabbing cases and mergers – are you in the know?
You can now read the 2023/24 version of this guide on LawCareers.Net!
Lawyers interact with companies, national and local government, institutions and individuals in almost every area of life, so it’s no surprise that wider economic and political issues affecting their clients have a knock-on effect on their work. Of these, six key issues are pressurising the sector and driving profession-wide change in various ways. They can be divided into:
- external factors – covid-19, technology, access to legal aid and Brexit; and
- internal issues – diversity and inclusion in the profession, and changes to training for solicitors and barristers.
Changes to solicitor and barrister training
Legal developments – talking points
The Coronavirus Act 2020 was published at the start of the pandemic, giving the government powers to implement emergency measures to deal with covid-19, including national lockdowns.
The restrictions imposed were subsequently challenged in Dolan and others v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Dolan and others submitted “that the regulations imposed sweeping restrictions on civil liberties which were unprecedented and unlawful on three grounds”, arguing that the restrictions were an infringement on basic human rights. However, permission to bring a judicial review was denied.
As a result of government restrictions, the impact on the UK economy was severe, with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) plummeting by nearly 10% – the worst fall since 1948 when records began. Much like other sectors, the legal profession felt the wrath of the pandemic, but it also remained broadly stable – turnover for the UK legal sector surged to record heights, reaching £4.06 billion in March 2021, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Practice areas that saw an influx in work as a result of the pandemic include restructuring and insolvency, insurance, employment, life sciences and sports. As aspiring lawyers, you should identify the ways in which your preferred practice area has been affected by the pandemic, as well as the impact on businesses, clients, the legal profession and how lawyers work.
Here is some food for thought to help get you started.
See you online
As governments across the globe implemented lockdowns to limit the spread of covid-19, businesses (where possible) were forced to transition to remote working, which resulted in an influx of cybercrime, including financial scams in the form of phishing emails, pension liberation scams and investment and Ponzi scams. Why did cybercrime increase, what impact did this have on businesses and what can businesses do to protect themselves from cyber-attacks going forward?
The death of the high street
Consumer habits have been adapting for years, with customers increasingly shopping online. However, as many businesses closed their doors during lockdowns, the UK high street became a ghost town. As well as the immediate financial burden on the retail sector, firms have been exploring the wider impact that covid-19 had on commercial lease terms and how businesses can better prepare for the future.
In addition, ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) services surged during the pandemic. These services enable consumers to pay flexibly for online and in-store purchases – in 2020 transactions reached £2.7 billion according to data from the Financial Conduct Authority. Most recently, digital bank Monzo has revealed that it will be offering its customers credit limits of up to £3,000 to stagger payments, following a “comprehensive affordability assessment”.
Read more about BNPL and the regulation debate in this Commercial Question from Shoosmiths.
To commute, or not to commute?
Meanwhile, the rail industry is also adapting to the new world. With the daily train commute suddenly replaced with rolling out of bed for many, rail use ultimately fell last year. As restrictions ease in the UK, the future of office work remains uncertain with some businesses encouraging employees back into the office, others taking a hybrid approach and some continuing to work remotely for the foreseeable.
One change to UK rail came into place on 21 June 2021, which enabled UK railway passengers to purchase flexible season tickets, with additional pay-as-you-go options.
The modernisation of the railway is part of plans outlined in the long-awaited Williams-Shapps review. But what else will the rail industry need to do to adapt?
Advances in AI and automation create new revolutionary possibilities (and challenges) for the legal profession. In light of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s essential to consider how law firms responded to these challenges. The need to adopt and implement technology across the sector as the profession transitioned to remote working became critical to ensure the safety of staff. Firms also had to quickly identify and introduce alternative means to deliver high-quality services to clients in a remote environment .
How are firms using tech?
A survey published by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in July 2021, looked at the changes that firms made in the past 12 months, which included 56% of survey respondents improving or increasing use of existing technology, 50% changing ways to deliver services and 35% introducing new technology. Adopting remote-working technology during this period was “straightforward for large law firms whose enterprise systems were in the cloud,” according to the SRA’s report.
However, the real challenge for lawyers is to develop new, tech-based ways of delivering legal services as technology drives new ways of doing the same tasks. For current and future users of legal technology, the three top purposes are to “improve service quality”, “improve efficiency of workflows” and “allow staff to work more flexibly”, according to the SRA survey.
Solicitors, barristers and legal executives will still be needed, but clients in pursuit of cheaper, faster services are likely to sacrifice the human touch altogether for basic legal functions in favour of an automated offering. The SRA said: “Our findings reveal that the past year has seen a step change in the adoption of legal technology and innovation in part as a result of covid-19.”
Accessing legal advice
One of the biggest barriers to accessing legal advice is costs. The SRA has pointed to the cheaper services enabled by technology as a way of mitigating the widespread lack of access to legal advice and wants to support, “greater adoption of innovation and technology in the legal sector”. Meanwhile, the Legal Services Board (LSB) is due to use its powers to coordinate technological innovation in the sector to increase and improve access to legal services.
The role of trainee solicitors is already being adapted to embrace technology. Newly qualified solicitors and trainees have traditionally drafted simple contracts and reviewed documents, but this type of work is becoming increasingly automated. Now, trainees are more likely to manage the process of referring the initial document review to a third party that does the work at a lower cost, undertaking a secondary review of the document later. It is likely that trainees will be interacting with AI in the future. Management skills and an understanding of technology – and how to resolve technical problems – are now increasingly important skills to showcase in both an interview and training contract.
That said, the LSB has urged that regulators pushing for change should also be aware of the risks involved, which include ensuring progression does not isolate or leave behind those with low digital capability or literacy, and balancing the ethical and regulatory challenges of technologies such as AI against their advantages.
Access to justice is an ongoing concern following years of financial cuts. The past year was no different – in fact, the coronavirus pandemic introduced additional disruption. As nationwide lockdowns were implemented, courts had to quickly adapt to remote hearings, or instead being postponed. Delays to hearings meant that the already overwhelming backlog of cases was exacerbated and continues to remain an issue as we emerge from restrictions.
Earlier in the year, the Law Society expressed its ‘wide ranging’ concerns with remote juries in the justice system, including the “risk of alienating juries and/or witnesses.” These concerns follow civil court users having described remote hearings as “fragmented” and demanding improvements. Find out more about the Law Society’s concerns in LCN’s News.
Funding
According to the Legal Needs Survey, it is estimated that 3.6 million people a year in England and Wales “fail to have their legal needs met in resolving a dispute”. While covid-19 has worsened the existing problem, at the heart of the access to justice issue is funding.
In early 2020 the government proposed to inject an extra £32 to £50 million into criminal legal aid funding, but the Law Society stated that this would not be enough to alleviate the current threat to “the very existence of criminal defence practitioners”.
Court backlog
The Law Society reported data from Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) that indicates the backlog of cases in criminal courts increased by 27% from 446,460 to 568,678 at the end of July 2020, and those in family courts rose 20% to 65,429.
The House of Lords constitution committee also found that the all-time high in the current backlog of crown court cases is likely to have a disproportionate impact on children and young people from ethnic minority backgrounds.
In the last quarter of 2020, 18% of cases had been outstanding for more than a year – up 6% on 2019, according to data from the Ministry of Justice. In response to the backlog, 10 Nightingale courts were opened, with government plans to build 14 new Nightingale courts recently revealed to tackle outstanding court cases caused by the pandemic.
Read more about the role that Nightingale courts played during the pandemic in LCN blogger Bethany Barrett’s posts – ‘Nightingale courts: a cry for help from the court system?’.
University students offer free legal aid
In December 2020 it was revealed that university students were set to play an important role in providing free legal aid as law schools forecast a rise in demand for pro bono support, following unmet needs and the ongoing impact of legal aid cuts. Several student-run advice centres have opened to fill the gap, with those involved being praised for their efforts.
Despite legal technology development, there are still issues that remain to be resolved. In its Law under lockdown report, the Law Society of England and Wales said: “Government must maintain access to legal advice and courts during emergencies, so citizens are able to challenge exceptional measures. But many have been unable to access legal advice, despite efforts to set up technology to replace prohibited visits in person.”
It is now for the government to decide whether it will act to preserve access to justice and the concept of equality before the law, or whether it will continue to leave the justice system “on the brink of collapse”.
As of 1 January 2021, several changes came into effect impacting solicitors in England and Wales with clients in the EU. According to the Law Society, they are “now subject to 31 different regulatory regimes, one for reach jurisdiction”. With freedom of movement terminated in the EU, new rules have been introduced to control how solicitors can cross the border to each EU member state, EEA countries and Switzerland.
Those interested in working in the legal sector should be engaged with the latest Brexit news and its impact over the months and years ahead. This will involve analysing its ongoing effect on the business and legal worlds, and more specifically understanding the aspects that could affect your shortlisted firms and their clients.
Looking inwards, the legal profession is still nowhere near as diverse or as accessible as it should be, although important progress has been (and is being) made in some areas:
- Kennedys has signed up to the Mansfield Rule, alongside 13 other leading law firms;
- the ‘NOTICED toolkit’ was launched by 13 City firms, alongside inter-diversity network NOTICED, to tackle racism within the profession;
- Clifford Chance announced its plans to removed gendered language from legal drafting;
- Linklaters launched a bespoke A-level tutoring programme – Making Links Discover – with two pillars, one aimed at advancing social mobility and the other on improving racial and ethnic diversity;
- Bushra Ali Solicitors appointed Aisha Seedat as disability, diversity and inclusion champion – a first for a UK-based law firm; and
- judges, QCs, junior barristers and solicitor advocates have come out in support of an anti-bullying campaign initiated by five barristers.
Ethnicity
Of solicitors and partners in England and Wales, around 21% and 22%, respectively, are from an ethnic minority background, according to the SRA’s latest statistics. At firms with 50 or more partners, only 8% are from an ethnic minority background. Meanwhile, at the Bar just under 14% of practising barristers and only 9% of Queens Counsel (QC) are from ethnic minority backgrounds, according to the Bar Standards Board (BSB), with ethnic minority candidates making up only 23% of pupils.
Research by the BSB relating to students enrolled on the BPTC (the old vocational stage of training for the Bar) from 2011/12 to 2019/20, shows that 77% of White candidates with a first-class degree and an ‘outstanding’ BPTC grade secured pupillage, compared with 65% of candidates from an ethnic minority background with the same grades.
In addition, a Bar Council report published in May 2021 highlighted that on average Black women barristers earn around £19,000 less per annum than their White male counterparts, and Black male barrister salaries are more than £15,000 less than the average White junior barrister.
Despite petitions calling for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting, the UK’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities has still not made this a legal requirement.
Gender
Women make up just over half of practising solicitors, but only 27% of partners in private practice. Meanwhile, ONS data indicates that women solicitors, including part-time and full-time employees, earn 4.5% less than men and women in full-time solicitor roles earn 7% less. The gender pay gap reporting enforcement was suspended in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
As of December 2020 women made up just under 40% of the Bar, with the number of women QCs increasing year on year, from 16.2% to 16.8%, according to the BSB. At pupillage level, the figure was equal. In a bid to improve gender diversity at the Bar, last year four leading commercial sets – Brick Court, Essex Court, Fountain Court and One Essex Court – partnered to recruit more women to the Bar.
Another gendered issue is unequal work allocation, with male barristers treated preferentially in the assignment of new cases by clerks. The Bar Council report reinforced this issue, indicating that Black women barristers are offered less rewarding work than others. The BSB has produced tools to assist chambers in the monitoring of work allocation as part of its equality and diversity rules handbook.
Disability
The number of people working in law firms who reported a disability is only 4% – this figure drops to 3% when looking solely at lawyers in law firms, which, according to the SRA, has increased only by 0.5% since 2017. Of other staff working in law firms, just 4% have declared a disability and in firms with six to nine partners, 5% of lawyers reported a disability. The SRA’s data also considers seniority and reports that only 3% of partners reported a disability, compared to 4% of solicitors.
Improving inclusivity and accessibility for disabled lawyers is crucial, and the past year has proven that agile working practices could be a stepping stone to a more accessible profession. According to a Law Society survey of 100 disabled lawyers conducted last year, 70% of those surveyed said they would prefer to work remotely in the long term due to the health and wellbeing benefits it offers. However, respondents also warned that “one size does not fit all” and “it should not be assumed that all disabled employees would prefer to work from home”.
Meanwhile, at the Bar, the BSB reported a 4.5% increase from 2019 to 2020 of pupils with a declared disability. These figures demonstrate just how much more work the profession must do to ensure that law firms and chambers are inclusive and accessible for disabled candidates.
Sexual orientation and gender identity
Just 3% of lawyers identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual – a figure that has remained unchanged since 2014. This figure drops in firms with one partner, while at larger firms with 10 and 50-plus partners, the figure is slightly higher.
The SRA also highlighted that 2% of solicitors, 1% of partners and 2% of other staff, reported that they had a different gender identity to the one that was assigned to them at birth. In total there are around 6,000 LGBQT+ solicitors practising in England and Wales.
The SRA supported the InterLaw Diversity Forum in creating a LGBTQ+ Factsheet, which outlines key findings from the 2021 report, including research that demonstrates the negative experiences of LGBTQ+ employees as a result of their sexual orientation; bullying and harassment towards lesbian, gay, bi, trans and non-binary people is evident. According to the SRA, “LGBTQ+ lawyers who are not ‘out’ in the workplace are more likely to leave their job and many are still not comfortable with bringing their full selves to work”.
Meanwhile, despite a low response rate, recent BSB data indicates that of those providing information more than 14% of pupils, 7% of non-QC barristers and 5% of QCs identified as either a bisexual, gay man, lesbian or other.
Looking forward
There remains a lack of diversity within the industry across the various diversity strands, including the ones mentioned above, as well as socio-economic background, religion and belief, caring responsibilities, neurodiversity and age. This lack is a fundamental issue that must be addressed if the profession aims to attract the best talent and offer the best services.
Head to LCN’s Diversity Hub, sponsored by Gowling WLG (UK) LLP, for regular updates on what law firms, chambers and legal education providers are doing to remove existing barriers and work towards a more diverse and inclusive profession.
Changes to solicitor and barrister training
Whether you aim to become a solicitor or barrister, your route to qualifying is changing. For aspiring solicitors, the Legal Practice Course will gradually be replaced with the new two-part Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) from September 2021, while budding barristers can now take new, cheaper Bar courses instead of the Bar Professional Training Course.
Discover more about the SQE via LCN’s SQE Hub.
In 2020, UK law firm mergers dropped to a nine-year low, with only 107 mergers completed (a fall of 25% from 2019), as consolidator firms took a more “cautious” approach to mergers in light of the pandemic, according to Hazlewoods. As the UK’s economy recovers, this figure is anticipated to improve in 2021.
Some notable mergers include:
- Argentinian law firm Rattagan Macchiavello Arocena and Dentons, to form Dentons Rattagan Macchiavello Arocena and become the largest global law firm in Argentina;
- Knights, which bought two regional firms – Shulmans and ASB Law – for approximately £20.1 million and £8.5 million, respectively; and
- a £40 million merger between Southampton-based UK Moore Blatch and Barlow Robbins, which will see the combined firm – Moore Barlow – specialise in several practice areas, including private client and personal injury.
Legal developments - talking points
Covid-19 vaccines and intellectual property
In October 2020, South Africa and India proposed a temporary waiver to IP protections for covid-19 vaccines, which has since been opposed by the governments of the UK, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Norway, Switzerland and the EU.
More recently, in an open academic statement, more than 120 academics have set out evidence to support the waiver and called on the governments of the countries to “drop their opposition” to the proposed TRIPs (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and instead support it.
The open letter describes the waiver as a “necessary and proportionate legal measure towards the clearing of existing intellectual property barriers to scaling up of production of covid-19 health technologies in a direct, consistent and effective fashion”. Waiving the IP rules relating to the covid-19 vaccine would increase the manufacturing and distribution of covid-19 vaccines to low-income countries.
Modern slavery
Eliminating modern slavery from the supply chain continues to be a key issue for the construction industry. In April 2020, the Home Office published guidance on reporting modern slavery during the coronavirus pandemic. The guidance highlights how covid-19 might give rise to new slavery risks, with the pandemic making more workers vulnerable to exploitative practices such as not paying statutory sick pay, late cancellations of orders, late payment for supplies and inadequate or no grievance procedures.
Brexit trade deals
A trade deal between the UK and EU came into force on 1 January 2021, enabling businesses on both sides to continue trading without the imposition of tariffs or quotas, but with the introduction of some border checks. However, the deal was not as comprehensive as businesses hoped, with important areas of the UK economy, such as the financial sector, still facing uncertainty. Since then, the UK and Australia have agreed a free trade deal. While details of the final agreement are yet to be published, some UK-based farmers are concerned it will result in cheap imports undercutting their products; the UK government has confirmed that protections for farmers will be incorporated into the deal.
The UK signed trade deals with Japan in October 2020, as well as with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Several rollover deals were also negotiated prior to 31 December 2020.
Here is a sample of important and fascinating cases heard in UK courts in 2020-21.
Shamima Begum
The Supreme Court ruled that Shamima Begum – who left the UK in 2015 to join the Islamic State in Syria (ISIS) – will not be permitted to return to the UK to fight her citizenship case in person.
After being stripped of her British Citizenship in 2019, Begum appealed against the court’s decision from Syria and hoped to return to the UK to appear before the court. In July 2020, the Court of Appeal argued that Begum should be permitted to enter the UK, after concluding that she was unable to have a “fair and effective appeal” against the decision because she was being held in a Syrian refugee camp, and thus unable to communicate with her lawyers.
In February 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that Begum will not be allowed to return to the UK to appeal her case.
‘Wagatha Christie’
A celebrity libel case involving Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy hit the headlines in 2019-20, after Rooney alleged that leaked details from her private Instagram account came from “Rebekah Vardy’s account”. In November 2020, the High Court ruled that Rooney’s bombshell social media post had libelled Vardy and ordered her to pay £23,000 toward Vardy’s legal costs. However, in the latest round of the court case, Vardy has been ordered to pay £10,500 towards Rooney’s legal costs, with the High Court battle set to resume in September 2021.
Uber drivers confirmed as ‘workers’
The Supreme Court ruled that Uber drivers are ‘workers’, following an ongoing dispute initiated by two former Uber drivers in 2016. In response to the ruling, the ride-hailing giant has confirmed that its 70,000 UK drivers will receive the National Living Wage, holiday pay and pensions.
Aspiring lawyers should keep their eyes on the ongoing global impact this ruling will have on the rest of the gig economy.
Heathrow expansion not unlawful on climate grounds
A Court of Appeal decision, which had found that the government’s approval of a proposed third runway at Heathrow airport was unlawful because it failed to consider the Paris Agreement, was overturned by the UK Supreme Court.
The airport can now apply for planning permission for its proposed expansion, which will still be carefully considered in light of the UK government’s pledges to cut emissions, including its commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
And here are some big cases to watch out for in the coming year:
- Oatly sues Glebe Farm over alleged trademark infringement. Both company’s products contain the word ‘oat’ in it, come in a milk-style carton with a blue finish and feature a teacup illustration.
- Nike European Operations Netherlands & Converse Netherlands v Commission (State Aid) – Nike has allegedly been paying less tax than its competitors, which is a breach of EU state aid rules.
- Ray-Ban is considering suing GrandVision for allegedly violating the terms of their €7 billion proposed acquisition agreement.
- The Boeing Company Derivative Litigation board of directors are facing a serious lawsuit from shareholders over two fatal crashes involving its 737 Max. The two crashes killed 346 people in less than six months due to negligence.
You might also be interested in the following as you continue to develop your commercial understanding:
- Head to LCN’s commercial awareness Hub to read the latest commercial round-up and this week’s Commercial Question, written by a leading law firm.
- Improve your commercial awareness with LCN vlogger Simran.
- Listen to LCN’s Bethany Wren and Matt Broadbent as they discuss all things commercial awareness in episode 21 of the podcast.
Olivia Partridge (she/her) is the content producer at LawCareers.Net.
