The Brief:
After a decade, women barristers have finally hit both the 30% brief and fee targets under the Law Council’s Equitable Briefing Policy.
A 12% drop in reporting rates means the result comes with an asterisk.
A decade in the making.
Women barristers received 32% of briefs and 31% of brief fees in 2024-25, clearing the Law Council of Australia’s 30% threshold on both counts for the first time since the policy was overhauled in 2016.
The LCA redeveloped the equitable briefing policy in 2016 to include hard targets for the first time. Ten years on, those targets have finally been met.
Sure, the profession had cleared the briefing target in recent years, but the fee target consistently kept slipping out of reach. Not this time.
LCA President Tania Wolff said the result reflects “sustained effort across the profession to drive cultural change and improve equality.”
The numbers back it up:
Senior women barristers picked up 25% of briefs, up 3 percentage points on last year and 13 points since 2016.
Junior women barristers took 41% of briefs, up 1 percentage point on last year and 13 points since 2016.
Women barristers received $325,872,920 in fees (excl GST), up 9 percentage points on last year and 16 points since 2016.
The referral data is moving too. Women barristers were recommended by another barrister 64% of the time for new matters and 62% for current matters, both up from 59% the year prior.
There’s a gap still showing.
Senior barristers were 1.94 times more likely to appear alongside senior men than senior women, even as they were 1.2 times more likely to brief junior women over junior men.
But Wolff was quick to flag the asterisk.
Reporting dropped 12% this year. “A decline in reporting rates this year is a concern, and there is more work to do to ensure the data accurately reflects practice across the profession. We are taking steps to strengthen reporting processes and support greater participation in future years,” Wolff said.
Source: Law Council of Australia