This part looks at how people access justice in Wales, as well as the general make-up and regulation of the legal profession.
Somewhat surprisingly, legal activities made up a slightly higher share of Welsh economic output in 2017 than the UK average, standing at £473million (~2.3% of GVA; UK ~2.0%)7. Cardiff also had the fifth-highest number of legal-related businesses per head in the UK outside London8.
Despite this, revenues from Welsh law firms are generally lower than in England because the firms themselves are usually smaller; 56.8% of Welsh law firms had a turnover of under £500,000-a-year in 2019-20 compared to 49.4% in England9.
The more lucrative high-value commercial and civil cases are usually taken up in England and heard at the highest courts (in London), while – as mentioned earlier – Welsh legal firms deal with more routine localised and personal matters like conveyancing and divorce so the legal market is less diverse.
Most of the 300 or so barristers based in Wales have their chambers in Cardiff, with around a third based in Swansea and around 16 (as of 2021) at chambers in Newport. Barristers taking part in cases in the north are usually based in Chester, while barristers routinely take part in cases heard in Wales from chambers in Bristol and London10.
A review commissioned by the Welsh Government in 2019 warned of the creation of “advice deserts” caused by a combination of the centralisation of legal services in Cardiff (and England), cuts to legal aid, court closures, the increasing age profile of solicitors and lack of training contracts in Wales for younger solicitors11.
Although there’s no official data, the review found some evidence that the largest Welsh-headquartered legal firms – Blake Morgan, Hugh James, Geldards, Howells, Capital Law, New Law etc. – tend to recruit graduates from Welsh universities12. The vast majority of Welsh-domiciled students who study law at Welsh universities end up working in Wales too, though there’s a lot of cross-border flow13.
7: Office for National Statistics, (2018). Annual Business Survey.
8: Guto Ifan, Cardiff University, (May 2019). The Legal Economy of Wales, p24. Available at: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/1699217/Legal-Economy-report-FINAL.pdf
9. Welsh Government and Jomati Consultants LLP, (June 2019). The Legal Sector in Wales – A Rapid Review, p 13. Available at: https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-10/the-legal-sector-in-wales-a-rapid-review.pdf
10. Commission on Justice in Wales (October 2019). Justice in Wales for the People of Wales, p376-377. Available at: https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-10/Justice%20Commission%20ENG%20DIGITAL_2.pdf
11. Welsh Government and Jomati Consultants LLP, (June 2019). The Legal Sector in Wales – A Rapid Review, p15-17. Available at: https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-10/the-legal-sector-in-wales-a-rapid-review.pdf
12: Welsh Government and Jomati Consultants LLP, (June 2019). The Legal Sector in Wales – A Rapid Review, p26. Available at: https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-10/the-legal-sector-in-wales-a-rapid-review.pdf
13: Guto Ifan, Cardiff University, (May 2019). The Legal Economy of Wales, p15. Available at: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/1699217/Legal-Economy-report-FINAL.pdf
