{"id":11872,"date":"2023-09-25T08:44:26","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T08:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legal500.com\/future-lawyers\/?page_id=11872"},"modified":"2026-09-22T15:24:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:24:04","slug":"survey-findings","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.legal500.com\/future-lawyers\/survey-findings\/","title":{"rendered":"Survey Findings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Legal 500 Future Lawyers Trainee Solicitor 2025\/26 Survey Findings<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The aim of our survey has been the same for 20 years: to tell prospective lawyers what it\u2019s really like to train at a law firm.<\/p>\n<p>Using direct quotes from current trainees, we offer\u00a0you an unbiased insight into the training experience at firms across the UK.<\/p>\n<p>But as well as asking survey respondents about their training, we collect a whole host of other information too.<\/p>\n<p>This data gives us a more detailed picture of the ethnic, socioeconomic and educational backgrounds of trainee solicitors, as well as the legal profession more broadly.<\/p>\n<p>Below we set out our findings from the 2025\/26 survey.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ethnicity<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When it comes to ethnicity, the legal industry has a long reputation for being very white. And it\u2019s not unfair to say that the sector has been a bit slow to diversify.<\/p>\n<p>Black solicitors in particular are still an underrepresented group, at trainee level but especially at more senior levels.<\/p>\n<p>Asian solicitors fare better, but there is still a way to go.<\/p>\n<p>On a more positive note, law firms have been making a concerted effort over the past decade to recruit a more diverse workforce.<\/p>\n<p>This year:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>78% of this year\u2019s respondents identified as white (compared with 79% in 2023)<\/li>\n<li>12% of respondents identified as Asian or Asian British (compared with 10% in 2023)<\/li>\n<li>5% described their ethnicity as mixed or multiple ethnic groups (no change from 2023)<\/li>\n<li>4% of this year\u2019s trainees identified as Black or Black British (no change from 2023)<\/li>\n<li>Less than 1% described their ethnicity as Arab or Jewish.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Gender<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>66% of this year\u2019s trainee solicitor respondents identified as female (up from 62% in 2023)<\/li>\n<li>33% identified as male (down from 26% in 2023)<\/li>\n<li>Less than 1% of respondents described their gender as non-binary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>University<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oxbridge graduates and Russell Group students have long been favoured by law firms.<\/p>\n<p>But things are changing, and this year 32% of respondents attended a university that does not fall into either of the above categories.<\/p>\n<p>We expect this trend to continue in the coming years.<\/p>\n<p>This year:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>9% of respondents attended Oxbridge (down from 12% in 2023)<\/li>\n<li>55% attended another Russell Group university (excluding Oxford and Cambridge) &#8211; no change from 2023.<\/li>\n<li>35% attended other UK universities (up from 32% in 2023)<\/li>\n<li>1% studied abroad (no change from 2023).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Degree subject<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While the trend towards non-law degrees has been growing for the past decade, law is still a popular choice at undergraduate level.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>61% of respondents studied law as their undergraduate degree subject (down from 62% in 2023)<\/li>\n<li>39% studied a non-law subject (up from 38% in 2023)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The SQE has opened up the non-law route even more.<\/p>\n<p>If you would like to find out more about our survey findings, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legal500.com\/future-lawyers\/contact-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">get in touch<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h4>Click the links below to see the winners from each category.<\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ol>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"\/future-lawyers\/survey\/the-lex-100-winners\/you-are-happy-at-your-law-firm\/\">Happiness<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/future-lawyers\/survey\/the-lex-100-winners\/you-would-you-recommend-your-firm-as-an-employer\/\">Good employer<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/future-lawyers\/survey\/the-lex-100-winners\/the-firm-honours-your-preferred-seat-allocations\/\">Seat allocations<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/future-lawyers\/survey\/the-lex-100-winners\/you-are-given-good-quality-work\/\">Work quality<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/future-lawyers\/survey\/the-lex-100-winners\/client-contact-has-been-a-positive-and-valuable-experience\/\">Client contact<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/future-lawyers\/survey\/the-lex-100-winners\/you-think-highly-of-the-senior-leadership-at-the-firm\/\">Leadership<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/future-lawyers\/survey\/the-lex-100-winners\/you-have-good-work-life-balance\/\">Work-life balance<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/future-lawyers\/survey\/the-lex-100-winners\/the-firm-has-good-camaraderie-and-a-supportive-culture\/\">Culture<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legal500.com\/future-lawyers\/survey\/future-lawyers-winners\/when-you-need-support-your-supervisors-are-approachable\/\">Approachability<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legal500.com\/future-lawyers\/survey\/future-lawyers-winners\/the-salary-benefits-and-reward-package-is-good\/\">Salary<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legal500.com\/future-lawyers\/survey\/future-lawyers-winners\/my-experience-with-pro-bono-and-or-csr-opportunities-at-the-firm-has-been-valuable\/\">Pro bono<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/future-lawyers\/survey\/the-lex-100-winners\/your-firm-is-committed-to-creating-a-diverse-and-inclusive-workplace\/\">Inclusivity<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/future-lawyers\/survey\/the-lex-100-winners\/you-are-confident-that-you-will-be-kept-on-after-qualification\/\">Retention confidence<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/future-lawyers\/survey\/the-lex-100-winners\/if-you-did-the-vac-scheme-at-your-firm-would-you-recommend-it\/\">Vac scheme<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Legal 500 Future Lawyers Trainee Solicitor 2025\/26 Survey Findings The aim of our survey has been the same for 20 years: to tell prospective lawyers what it\u2019s really like &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legal500.com\/future-lawyers\/survey-findings\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Survey Findings&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11872","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"featured_image_urls":{},"appp_media":null,"appp":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legal500.com\/future-lawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legal500.com\/future-lawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legal500.com\/future-lawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legal500.com\/future-lawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legal500.com\/future-lawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.legal500.com\/future-lawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legal500.com\/future-lawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}