Three-quarters of top judges are privately educated

Three-quarters (74 per cent) of top judges, defined as those who sit on the High Court and the Court of Appeal, received a private education, compared to just seven per cent of the UK population overall.

A report by the Sutton Trust and PRIME – an alliance of more than 80 UK law firms and legal departments, set up to offer work experience to young people from less privileged backgrounds – published today discovered that this figure is lower for solicitors as a whole, with 32 per cent of partners at firms having gone to a private school, although this rises to 41 per cent for London firms.

In a YouGov poll, more than half (52 per cent) of senior figures in the legal industry said that improving social mobility in the profession would be beneficial for their firm.