'I'm not one of those women's libber type people but...': Gender, class and professional power within the third branch of the English legal profession

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 hierarchies of legal practice.