Legal employment rises in the City

Employment in London's legal services sector is growing faster than any other financial or professional services industry, according to figures released by lobby group TheCityUK.

Since the end of 2011, employment in the banking sector fell 1.6% and insurance jobs decreased by 2.3%, while the number of people working in legal services in the City rose by 3.3% in the first half of 2012. The Law Society Gazette reports that there are currently 118,700 legal services employees in the City, a 24% increase on the figure of 95,900 in 2010. The SRA has also revealed that in September the number of foreign national lawyers practising in the United Kingdom rose by 10% to 1,929.

Chris Cummings, chief executive of TheCityUK, said: "The financial and professional services sector is critical to the UK economy and London is the number one financial centre in the world. However, we cannot afford to be complacent. The job market is still sluggish and London is facing competition from other financial centres, including those in Asia and America. We need to do all we can to ensure that London remains attractive to talented employees as a place to work, and that firms are able to compete against their peers in the United States and [the] Far East."