Little attention has been paid to a quiet revolution so profound that many solicitors’ firms may end up as quasi-alternative business structures. For over a decade, firms have been employing paralegals in ever greater numbers. They have also been delegating ever more complex, client-facing, work to paralegals. That fact is old news; what’s new is that we are approaching the point when paralegal fee-earners in firms may begin to outnumber solicitors—where solicitors become a minority in their own profession.
With most practitioners focusing on the implications of the Legal Services Act 2007, little attention has been paid to a quiet revolution so profound that many solicitors’ firms may end up as quasi-alternative business structures.
For over a decade, firms have been employing paralegals in ever greater numbers.
They have also been delegating ever more complex, client-facing, work to paralegals. That fact is old news; what’s new is that we are approaching the point when paralegal fee-earners in firms may begin to outnumber solicitors—where solicitors become a minority in their own profession.
The growth in paralegal numbers (circa 65,000) is such that
