England & Wales’ 151,692 solicitors and barristers breathe sigh of relief
To celebrate Back to the Future Day, this morning we shared this image on social media from Back to the Future II, in which Doc and Marty travel forward to October 21 2015.
With cuts to legal aid, #BackToTheFuture wasn't far off… pic.twitter.com/7dNWYIh8cC
— Legal Cheek (@legalcheek) October 21, 2015
Since then, the 14 second moment where Doc reveals to Marty that lawyers have been abolished has appeared on YouTube.
Marty:
Within two hours of his arrest, Martin McFly junior was tried, convicted and sentenced to 15 years in the state penitentiary. Within two hours?
Doc:
The justice system works swiftly in the future now that they have abolished all lawyers.
Happily, Legal Cheek can confirm that, according to official Bar Standards Board and Solicitors Regulation Authority figures, there are currently 135,976 practising solicitors and 15,716 practising barristers in England & Wales.
The legal aid cuts may be set to drive some of this lot away, while legal process outsourcing and even artificial intelligence will likely swallow up more lawyer jobs over the years ahead. But for now the law remains a pretty well-populated profession.