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Bar Council releases Barrister earnings by sex and practice area

© Copyright LexisNexis 2025. All rights reserved.
Date:4 NOV 2022
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In 2021 the Bar Council published a report showing trends in barristers’ earnings over the last 20 years, split by sex and practice area. The report, which used anonymous income data from self-employed barristers shared by Bar Mutual Indemnity Fund (BMIF) showed that, while there were more women than ever working at the Bar, the gap between men’s and women’s earnings had widened over the period 2000-2020.

They were also able to show that although in real-terms (adjusted for inflation) earnings had increased in most practice areas, some, most notably those in Criminal practice, had seen a decline in actual earnings over the same period.

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Key findings include:

  • Men’s average gross fee earnings across all practice areas declined by 5% in 2021, while women’s increased by 6%.
  • The gap between men’s and women’s earnings remains, or is getting wider, in some practice areas including Immigration, Chancery (Contentious) and Personal Injury.
  • Women are closing the gap in other practice areas including Commercial & Financial Services, Criminal and Employment, although there is still a long way to go.
  • Women’s earnings in Defamation have now overtaken men’s earnings.

Women have always out-earned men in Family (Children), but the gap closed to 3% in 2021. While in Family (Other), men out-earn women by 43%. Real-terms earnings saw a decline for both areas and for men and women.

The full report is here.

 

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