The latest Law Society annual statistical report shows that 35.7% of private practitioners were listed as partners or sole practitioners, compared with 39.8% the year before.
The results also show a sharp decline in the number of female partners, falling 6% to 5,727 in the year to 31 July, 2006, against 6,095 in 2005.
The fall comes despite the dramatic increase in the number of women entering the profession during the past decade, with female solicitor numbers having more than doubled since 1996 to account for 42.5% of practising solicitors.
Commenting on the results, Lovells senior partner John Young said: “The profession has in previous years seen fewer women reach partner level, but there is a growing realisation that it is important to encourage and introduce measures to promote the number of women reaching partner level.”
The report, the largest statistical picture of the profession in England and Wales, also confirms that leverage is continuing to expand at all levels of the profession, with firms with 81 or more partners averaging 4.83 fee earners for every partner.
SJ Berwin senior partner Jonathan Blake said: “A number of firms, particularly in the magic circle, have a bar and they will not make up more partners than that. It is not a dynamic I understand, but it is often one we benefit from.”
In a related finding, the report concluded that the use of consultants as partner alternatives had spread among the profession.
Despite the fading prospects of partnership, the report underlines the continuing expansion of the profession, which has sustained average growth of 4.1% for the last 30 years. As of July 2006, there were 131,347 solicitors on the roll, up 4.1% on the previous year, including 104,543 with practising certificates.
The figures suggest that the expansion is being driven partly by a drop in people leaving the profession, as there was a 3.8% fall in the number of new admissions to the roll.
There was also a 4.5% fall in the number of Legal Practice Course students eligible to sit the examination, while the number applying for law at university also fell slightly to 21,273 in 2005.
Despite robust commercial conditions, the number of training contracts remained largely level with 5,751 trainees starting in 2006.
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