The tribunals system offers valuable opportunities for solicitors to get a foot on the judicial ladder, but a ‘culture change’ within firms is needed before more can make it onto the bench, a senior solicitor judge has told the Gazette.

Gary Hickinbottom, the Deputy Senior President of Tribunals (pictured), who becomes a high court judge next week, said that while the judicial application process now favours solicitors, firms are still discouraging them from applying.

Overall statistics for the number of solicitors in the judiciary are not available, but the Gazette understands that the percentages, particularly in the senior ranks, remain low.

However, solicitors head three of the four new tribunal chambers, plus the employment tribunal – and more than half of the 73 individuals appointed to the tribunal judiciary last year were solicitors.

‘There is an antagonism within solicitor firms to members, particularly partners, sitting as part-time judges, which is seen by most as a prerequisite to a full-time appointment,’ said Hickinbottom. ‘Partners do not want their members going off doing something which is not earning money for the firm.’

He urged a ‘culture change within the profession’ to enable those who wish to become judges to do part-time sittings.

Hickinbottom said tribunals offer good opportunities for solicitors because of their more managerial approach. Tribunals ‘are looking to people who can not only try cases, but can manage in various ways, and solicitors have more experience of that than the bar’, he said.