Legal executives are the third branch of the legal profession in England and Wales.
While their professional body (ILEX) has made progress in recent years, they remain
in a subordinate position to solicitors. Drawing on detailed interviews with legal
executives in a range of settings, this article will argue that women legal
executives experience a distinctive disadvantage in legal practice. Intersections of
class, gender and professional power contribute to a highly unstable professional
identity for legal executives, and one which is particularly acute for women. The
dissonance between their ‘expected’ and
‘experienced’ professional identity reinforces their lack of
engagement with ILEX. This article argues that the negative and gendered
connotations of the professional identity of legal executives reinforce the
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