Statistics from Resolution’s 2022 Annual Report confirms that, out of a total of 6,531 members, 75.4% were female and 24.6% male. This means that, in Family Law at least, you are much more likely to be represented by a female family solicitor, than a male family solicitor.
Interestingly, amongst family law barristers, the gender gap is much narrower, and male and female family law barristers appear relatively evenly represented.
Legal recruiters say that for a family solicitor position, they receive more than three times as many applications from female candidates as male candidates. The gap is even wider when considering children law specific positions, where the split can be as high as 80/20.
What are the reasons for this? Could it be that a female client would prefer to be represented by a female solicitor (although the opposite might also be the case in respect of a male client)? Do men consider that they would not make suitable children law solicitors given the archaic and incorrect generalisation that children should stay with their mothers? Perhaps there is something of a social stigma, given the inevitable high emotions involved with family law?
As a male family solicitor, whilst I may statistically be in a minority, it has never been something that I have thought too much about (apart from when writing this article!), and I personally consider it to be an outdated generalisation to think that men are not capable of dealing with emotional issues, and supporting clients caught up in the emotional turmoil of family breakdown. To be able to offer a gender-balanced family law department is something that Onions and Davies should be proud of, and it enables our clients to have that most powerful of decision-making tools: choice.
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