Levelling the Playing Field in Law 2025

The team at Cibyl are so pleased to be working with some of the top law firms in the world on the Levelling the Playing Field in Law project.

The Levelling the Playing Field in Law project is sponsored by, and created in collaboration, with our headline partners - Clifford Chance, Gateley, and DLA Piper – as well as our supporting partners: A&O Shearman, Addleshaw Goddard, BCLP, Norton Rose Fulbright, Osborne Clarke and Pinsent Masons.

While there is still a lot of work to do to make sure that access to the profession is based solely on candidates’ current ability and future potential, this year there are some promising signs that students and trainees think the profession is, in 2025, more accessible and open to all.

To understand the barriers that stand in the way of talented candidates from all backgrounds entering the legal profession, we need a complete understanding of the experience of students, trainees, and NQs – from their education to their assessment process to their experience as they join firms as trainees.

This year Cibyl heard the views of 1,313 students, trainees, and NQs on their experiences of pursuing a career in the legal profession.

We surveyed students at 148 UK universities and trainees and NQs at 68 firms in the United Kingdom.

We asked our respondents to tell us their thoughts on a wide range of topics, including: their education and background, their expectations of joining a firm, reasonable adjustments, and the SQE. The thread running through all of the Levelling the Playing Field questions is access and equality of opportunity. We want to know: what barriers are aspiring lawyers, trainees and NQs facing and how can firms and universities remove those barriers and make sure that every aspiring lawyer is competing on a level playing field?

The report ends with a set of recommendations for firms, universities and students, but the story begins with the lived experience of students, trainees and NQs, large percentages of whom told us that they feel out of place, different or inadequate, and there were many who wanted to hide their accent or where they were brought up.

The question firms and universities need to answer – and the question this report returns to throughout – is: how can we make sure that the only factor that determines who becomes a lawyer is talent?

2025 key findings

• 2 in 5 (42%) respondents felt out of place, different or inadequate compared to colleagues
• 3 in 5 (59%) respondents did not think everyone had the same opportunities to succeed in the legal profession
• 1 in 4 (24%) respondents believed you needed a legal connection to become a solicitor
• 22% felt embarrassed about or wanted to hide/change their accent
• 19% felt embarrassed about or wanted to hide/change where they live or were brought up