Legally Blonde Turns 25, and Lawyers Credit Elle Woods
Legally Blonde reached UK screens 25 years ago today. In the film Reese Witherspoon plays Elle Woods, who enrols at Harvard Law School after her boyfriend dumps her for not being serious enough. Lawyers across the North West say it still matters to them.
Women now outnumber men in the legal industry. The film may not be the only reason, but lawyers say it did not hurt. Solicitors Regulation Authority figures show 43% of solicitors in England and Wales were women in 2001. Last year the Law Society found women made up 63%.
Olivia Holder, a trainee solicitor at Manchester-based Express Solicitors, said the film shaped the lawyer she wanted to be. She wears pink and drives a pink sparkly car, and says she did not have to give any of that up to be taken seriously. She believes people's access to justice can improve when solicitors are free to be themselves. Just as Elle uses her knowledge of perm aftercare to prove a client's innocence, Holder says her own interests help her relate to clients, such as those worried about scarring.
Her colleague Lois Ellard, a solicitor, likes how the film challenges the idea that someone who cares about their appearance cannot do a difficult job. She gets her lashes, brows and hair done. "One of my favourite things is when I'm on a night out and people try to guess what I do and nobody ever guesses solicitor," she said.
Still room to improve
Dana Denis-Smith, deputy vice president of the Law Society, said many women still feel they do not belong in law. She started her legal education about three months after the film came out. Before it, she said, women lawyers on screen were "very hard women" who had to play hardball. She said women have only been able to practise law since around 1922.
Lamya Al Saqqaf, a trainee solicitor at MSB Solicitors in Liverpool, takes motivation from the way Elle uses being underestimated. She noted that a character from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background might not reach law school so easily. In England and Wales, 75% of solicitors are white, 13% are Asian or Asian British and 3% are Black or Black British, according to the SRA. Its research also found white students are almost twice as likely as Asian and black students to be sponsored by a law firm through law school.
At the University of Manchester, female law students outnumber males 62% to 38%. Third-year student Dihasya Wijewickreme Perera, who also cheerleads, likes that Elle kept up her hobbies at Harvard.
Men still outnumber women in partner roles, 57% to 40%, the SRA says. In 2024, six in 10 female solicitors who left the role were under 55, compared with three in 10 men. Denis-Smith said no film has yet shown a senior partner. "So maybe we need that kind of more powerful, more influential voice as well to be visible as a player in the profession," she said.
Source: BBC News