Women now make up 43% of all individual lawyer rankings in the UK Legal 500 Solicitors research, according to new analysis .
Seven years after the L500 set out its intention to improve gender representation in its UK rankings, the latest research includes 5,700 rankings for women across the Hall of Fame, Leading Partner, Next-Generation Partner and Leading Associate tables.
The female rankings are included within the recently launched 2026 UK Solicitors research, which went live earlier this month, and show women now hold 46% of the individual rankings outside London and 40% of total rankings in London.
Some 270 more women were ranked in the 2026 guide compared to the 2025 guide, driven in large part by additions to the rankings outside London, which accounted for more than 180 of the additional female rankings.
In London, the practice areas with the most ranked women include family (including the newly separated children and divorce and financial remedy rankings) and immigration, with the clinical negligence: claimant rankings taking the top spot, with women holding 82% of all individual lawyer rankings.
Several London practices saw notable improvements in the most recent research, with both the clinical negligence: defendant and Islamic finance rankings seeing a 10% increase in ranked women, compared to last year’s research. In total, 36 of the London practice areas ranked within the 2026 research now have more than 50% of individual lawyer rankings going to women. The number of women recognised also increased significantly for premium M&A in London, with women now holding nearly 40% of the individual rankings.
Outside London, the female to male split is now 46:54, with 11 of the 14 regions covered in the research seeing an increase in female representation. The South East comes out on top with 54% female representation within the rankings, with practice rankings across the North, the East Midlands and East Anglia all achieving more than 50% representation.
The increase in female representation follows a concerted push by researchers to increase the number of deserving womem in the UK rankings via law firm submissions and partner interviews.
