Here Come The Ladies . . Barristers, That Is

The growing representation of women in the legal profession has been one of its defining characteristics over the past quarter century.  Law Society figures show women holding 43 per cent of practising certificates, representing over 4700 lawyers.  This figure is an increase of 35 per cent since 1980 although, as our LawFuel survey earlier this year showed, it is not reflected in women principals in the larger firms where just 17 per cent of partners are women.   The other notable area of growth, along with some accompanying performance issues, has been the number of barristers, which has grown by over 251% in the decade until 2000 and a further 60 per cent since then.  Economics is one of the reasons for that, something highlighted in the Bazley report too which reflected upon some of the problems at the bar, at the legal aid end of the scale at least. In Auckland during the 2008-2009 year 77 per cent of criminal cases were handled by barristers sole.  As she noted: “Judges have noted that some of these barristers are the people least interested in receiving support from others. The problem is not, however, confined to Auckland. Concerns with poorly performing barristers sole were reported at every single one of the courts I visited.”

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Posted by admin on Jul 26 2010. Filed under Photos, The Ladies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry