Here’s the UK Legal Market in Numbers (Infographic!)

Jason Ku • 12 December 2019

It’s easy to lose track of the scale and makeup of the Legal Market in the United Kingdom, with recruiters and other vendors using contradictory numbers. 

So we thought of busting a few myths.

Today, we are excited to finally visualise the real data behind the legal market in the UK and how many lawyers work in what type of company.

The numbers (as of November 2019):

There are 146,418 practising solicitors in the UK. 

22% of them are in-house counsel, the rest work in 10,402 law firms. 

40% of lawyers in England and Wales work in London. 

There are 5 firms that employ over 1,000 lawyers each, with 5,901 lawyers among them. 

  • CMS (1377)

  • Eversheds Sutherland (1295)

  • Linklaters (1,112)

  • Pinsent Masons (1095)

  • DAC Beachcroft (1007)

62 firms employ between 250 and 1,000 lawyers, with a total population of 29,470. 

8,051 law firms and small and mid-sized (2-250 lawyers), employing a total of 108,756 lawyers. And there are 2,284 sole practitioners. 

4,304 lawyers work in a Magic Circle firm

  • Linklaters: 1,112

  • Allen & Overy: 997

  • Clifford Chance: 924

  • Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer: 718

  • Slaughter & May: 553


2,716 lawyers work in a Silver Circle Firm

  • HSF: 864

  • Travers Smith: 446

  • Mishcon de Reya: 473

  • Macfarlanes: 444

  • Ashurst: 379

19% of all lawyers work in a Lawyer 50 ranked firm, and 26% of lawyers work in a Lawyer 100 firm. 

 

Pirical Legal Professionals, our legal search engine, has 100% of lawyers at Magic Circle and Silver Circle firms, as well as 100% of lawyers who work at UK Lawyer top 200 firms. 

 

Pirical Legal Professionals is able to filter lawyers by firm, seniority, location, rankings, and more — all within moments. Our clients use the platform for Recruitment, Market Maps and Location Research.

And we have only recently introduced a brand new feature in Pirical Legal Professionals that allows you to see stats about the market as they search through Pirical Legal Professionals, and export these charts into a PDF. 

So whenever you need a 30,000 ft view on a particular market or geographical segment, we’ve got you covered!

Schedule a free consultation here to learn if Pirical Legal Professionals is a fit for your business. 

Sources:

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