The Lord Chief Justice (pictured) has urged the profession to support solicitors who want to pursue a judicial career to help more make it to the High Court bench. Of the 110 High Court judges in post as of April 2008, only one was a solicitor.

Sir Igor Judge cited lack of awareness by firms of the need to gain part-time sitting experience. ‘This is an issue which the solicitors’ profession will need to address if they wish, as I do, to see more of their members on the bench at senior levels.’

The comments appear in the Judicial Executive Board’s report The attractiveness of senior judicial appointments to highly qualified practitioners, published last week. The study, by Professor Dame Hazel Genn, reveals financial sacrifice and the requirement to sit on circuit as two of the biggest deterrents.

Female solicitors who had become partners in magic circle firms said they had to struggle to succeed within their firms and were reluctant to do so again in a world they perceived as ‘even more antediluvian than City commercial practice’.

Law Society President Paul Marsh said he hoped to change the ‘negative attitude’ to the idea of partners taking time out of practice to sit on the bench and had discussed with the Lord Chief Justice the introduction of part-time rolls.