Breakdown of Welsh law firms' workforce diversity

The proportion of women lawyers in Welsh law firms was higher than the proportion of lawyers who were men and has continued to rise:

• 61% of lawyers were women, up from 57% in 2023
• 36% of lawyers were men down from 40% in 2023
• 3% of lawyers preferred not to say

Excluding the prefer not to say responses, women made up 63% of all lawyers in Welsh law firms. This compared with 50% of the Welsh workforce population in 2025.

However, there is a higher proportion of full-equity partners who are men than women, though the gap is narrowing:

• 46% of full-equity partners were women (up from 35% in 2023)
• 61% of salaried partners were women (up from 54% in 2023)
• 70% of solicitors were women (up from 68% in 2023).

Looking at trends over time for all partners, the proportion of women at partner level was 50%, up from 33% in 2015.

For other staff in Welsh law firms, there was a higher proportion of women (78%, down from 80% in 2015) compared with men (19% the same as 2015).

Lawyers from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background made up 6% of all lawyers working in Welsh law firms. This is an increase from 3% in 2015. And 90% of all lawyers in Welsh law firms were White. Three per cent preferred not to say their ethnicity.

When recalculated removing the prefer not to say responses, Black, Asian and minority ethnic lawyers in Welsh law firms made up 7%, the same proportion as the latest data on the working age population of Wales in 2021. Due to rounding, the breakdown for the Black, Asian and minority ethnic group is the same with or without the prefer not to say responses. This breakdown was:

• 4% Asian (compared with 3% of the Welsh population)
• 0.5% Black (compared with 1% of the Welsh population)
• 2% Multiple/Mixed (compared with 1% of the Welsh population)
• 0.2% from Other ethnic groups (compared with 1% of the Welsh population).

The proportion of Black, Asian and minority ethnic full-equity partners in Welsh law firms was 4% compared with 5% of salaried partners and 8% of solicitors.

When looking at all partners, 5% preferred not to say compared with 2% of solicitors.

For other staff in Welsh law firms, the proportion of people from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background made up 8%, an increase from 4% in 2015.

Lawyers who declared a disability made up 8% of all lawyers in Welsh law firms. This was up from 3% in 2015. And 87% answered that they did not have a disability, with 5% who preferred not to say.

Excluding the prefer not to say responses, 9% of lawyers in Welsh law firms declared a disability, compared with 21% of the whole population of Wales in 2021 or 17% of the UK workforce as a whole in 2025.

When we break this down by seniority:

• A higher proportion of full-equity partners declared a disability (12%) than salaried partners (6%).
• A higher proportion of full-equity partners preferred not to say whether they had a disability (8%), compared with salaried partners (4%).

Looking at partners as a whole, 10% declared a disability (up from 3% in 2015), compared with 7% of solicitors (up from 3% in 2015). A higher proportion of partners preferred not to say whether they had a disability (7%) than solicitors (4%).

For other staff in Welsh law firms, 10% declared a disability with 5% preferring not to say.

We also ask whether someone’s day-to-day activities are limited by a health condition or disability. In 2025, 4% of all lawyers in Welsh law firms said their day-to-day activities are limited a little by a health condition or disability and 1% said they were limited a lot, while 6% preferred not to say.

Parental occupation

We have reported on parental occupation using three categories to indicate socio-economic background:

• The professional (higher) socio-economic category is made up of modern and traditional professional occupations and senior, middle or junior managers or administrators.
• The intermediate socio-economic category is made up of clerical and intermediate occupations and small business owners who employ fewer than 25 people.
• The lower socio-economic (working class) category is made up of technical and craft occupations and long-term unemployed.

Since we started collecting this data in 2019, there has been some change in the breakdown of the profession by socio-economic background for all lawyers in Welsh firms. This primarily relates to an increase in the proportion of lawyers from an intermediate background. And corresponding decreases in the proportion from both professional and lower socio-economic backgrounds.

• professional background – 51% of lawyers, down from 55% in 2019
• intermediate background – 15% of lawyers, up from 5% in 2019
• lower socio-economic background – 24% of lawyers, down from 26% in 2019
• other responses (such as 'I don't know' or 'retired') – 2% of lawyers, down from 3% in 2019
• prefer not to say – 8% of lawyers, down from 11% in 2019.

When we break this down by seniority:

• A similar proportion of salaried partners were from a professional background (54%), compared with full-equity partners (53%)
• 17% of full-equity partners were from a lower socioeconomic background compared with 24% of salaried partners
• A higher proportion of full-equity partners preferred not to say (14%), compared with salaried partners (6%).

There were some differences in the proportions of partners as a whole compared with solicitors in terms of socio-economic background:

• 53% of partners and 50% of solicitors were from a professional background
• 19% of partners and 28% of solicitors were from a lower socio-economic background
• A higher proportion of partners preferred not to say their background (12%) than solicitors (5%).

For other staff in Welsh law firms, the proportion from a professional background was 39% and the proportion from a lower socio-economic background was 35%.

School attended

In Welsh law firms, there was a decrease in the proportion of lawyers who attended an independent/fee-paying school since 2015. And a corresponding increase in the proportion who attended a state school:

• 8% of lawyers attended an independent/fee-paying school compared with 10% in 2015
• 6% had no bursary
• 2% received a bursary covering 90% or more of the fees.
• 85% of lawyers attended a state school compared with 82% in 2015
• 20% attended selective schools
• 65% attended non-selective schools.
• 2% of lawyers attended schools outside the UK compared with 1% in 2015
• 5% of lawyers preferred not to declare their school type compared with 6% in 2015.

Excluding the 'prefer not to say' and the 'attended schools outside of the UK’ responses, 8% of lawyers went to an independent/fee-paying school compared with 2% across Wales in 2025.

When we break this down by seniority:

• 10% of full-equity partners attended an independent/fee-paying school, compared with 8% of salaried partners
• 78% of full-equity partners attended a state school, compared with 87% of salaried partners
• 11% full-equity partners preferred not to say compared with 4% of salaried partners.

There were some differences in the proportions of partners as a whole compared with solicitors in terms of school type:

• 9% of partners and 7% of solicitors attended an independent/fee-paying school
• 81% of partners and 88% of solicitors attended a state school
• A higher proportion of partners preferred not to say their school type (9%) than solicitors (3%).

For other staff in Welsh law firms, 3% attended an independent/fee-paying school, 5% attended school outside the UK, and 88% attended a state school. Five per cent of other staff preferred not to say.

In Welsh law firms, the largest proportion of lawyers was those aged 25–34 and 35–44 (both 26%).

The proportion of lawyers in each age group broadly follows what we would expect to see, with a lower proportion of the youngest and oldest age groups compared with the national proportions. Given the requirements for qualification, we would not expect many people to qualify between 16–24, and we would expect people to begin to retire in the 65+ category. The percentages have been given in the table below, and also recalculated without the prefer not to say values to compare with national proportions for Wales in 2021:

The data by seniority reflects the usual career pattern of solicitors and what age solicitors commonly achieve full-equity partnership:

• For full-equity partners, the largest group was 45–54 (28%), followed by 55–64 (26%) and then 35–44 (18%).
• For salaried partners, the largest group was 35–44 (37%), followed by 45–54 (31%) and then 55-64 (19%)
• For solicitors, the largest age group was 25–34 (39%) followed by 35–44 (28%) and then 45–54 (15%).

For other staff in Welsh law firms, there was a more even spread over most of the age categories. The largest proportion was aged 25-34 (27%) and the smallest was 65+ (4%).

There was some change in the religious make-up of lawyers since 2015. This primarily relates to an increase in the proportion of lawyers who had no religion or belief, and a decrease in the proportion of Christian lawyers. The largest group of lawyers were Christian, followed by those who had no religion or belief. The largest of the other faith groups were Muslim. In the table below we have provided the national proportions in 2021 for religion in Wales for comparison.

Breaking the lawyer population down by seniority for the three largest groups (Christian, no religion or belief and Muslim):

• 50% of full-equity partners, 49% of salaried partners and 41% of solicitors were Christian
• 2% of full-equity and salaried partners, and 3% of solicitors were Muslim
• 33% of full-equity partners, 41% of salaried partners and 48% of solicitors said they had no religion or belief
• 13% of full-equity partners and 6% of salaried partners and solicitors preferred not to say.

Looking at trends over time for all partners, there were some changes:

• a decrease in Christian partners from 61% in 2015 to 50% in 2025
• an increase in partners with no religion or belief from 21% in 2015 to 36% in 2025
• an increase in Muslim partners from 0.5% in 2015 to 2% in 2025.

For other staff in Welsh law firms, the largest group was no religion or belief (51%), followed by Christian (35%), Muslim (3%) and any other religion or belief (2%). Eight per cent of other staff preferred not to say.

Of all lawyers working in Welsh law firms, 36% were primary carers for a child or children under 18, and 9% had unpaid caring responsibilities for others with long-term physical or mental ill health. We have shortened these to 'childcare responsibilities' and 'other caring responsibilities' for ease going forward.

Of all lawyers, 5% preferred not to say whether they had childcare responsibilities, and 6% preferred not to say whether they had other caring responsibilities.

There are no nationally recognised statistics on childcare responsibilities. However, 12% of the population of Wales in 2021 declared they had other care responsibilities. Excluding the 'prefer not to say' responses, 9% of all lawyers working in Welsh law firms had other caring responsibilities.

A higher proportion of salaried partners in Welsh firms had childcare responsibilities (50%) than full-equity partners (31%). For both types of partners, 9% had other caring responsibilities.

Looking at partners as a whole, 37% of partners had childcare responsibilities compared with 35% of solicitors. Nine per cent of partners and 9% of solicitors had other caring responsibilities.

For other staff in Welsh law firms, 24% had childcare responsibilities, and 10% had other caring responsibilities.

Due to small values, these proportions are shown to one decimal place. For lawyers working in Welsh law firms, 3.2% were lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) or preferred another description, and 89.6% were heterosexual. This compared with 1.9% and 90.3% respectively in 2015.

In the latest national data survey for Wales on sexual orientation from 2024, 0.7% of people chose not to answer the question, compared with our prefer not to say proportion for all lawyers of 7.1%. Across the population of all lawyers in Welsh law firms:

• 2.0% answered they were gay or lesbian (compared with 1.7% of the Welsh population)
• 1.1% answered they were bi (compared with 1.9% of the Welsh population)
• 0.2% preferred another description (compared with 1.6% of the Welsh population).

Looking at seniority:

• 2.5% of full-equity partners identified as LGB, compared with 3.1% of salaried partners
• 11.8% of full-equity partners preferred not to say, compared with 6.1% of salaried partners
• Looking at partners as a whole, 2.7% identified as LGB, compared with 3.4% of solicitors.

For other staff in Welsh law firms, 6.4% identified as LGB and 0.4% preferred another description.

Of all lawyers in Welsh law firms, 1.6% declared their gender identity was different from their sex registered at birth (compared with 0.4% of the Welsh population in 2021). This was a decrease from 1.7% in 2017, when we first collected this data.

Please note the caveat in relation to this data on the ONS website.

In 2021, 6.3% of the Welsh population chose not to answer this question, compared with our prefer not to say proportion for all lawyers of 3.4%.

Looking at seniority:

• 0.3% of partners said their gender identity was different to their sex registered at birth, compared with 2.5% of solicitors
• 5.1% of partners preferred not to say, compared with 2.2% of solicitors.

For other staff in Welsh law firms, 1.5% said their gender identity was different to their sex registered at birth.