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This book presents the results of an empirical study on the profile of lawyers associated with various bar associations in Flanders and Brussels, conducted between May and July 2020. It marks the third edition of the Lawyers' Barometer, following previous studies in 2006/2007 and 2012/2013. Led by professors Wim Hardyns and Stephan Parmentier, the research was commissioned by the Order of Flemish Bar Associations. The study examines the professional structure, clientele, fees, and evolving trends in the Flemish legal profession. It also explores changes since the first barometer, offering valuable insights for the Order of Flemish Bar Associations and further research. This comprehensive reference is aimed at those interested in understanding the legal profession in Flanders, including lawyers and researchers.

Bar associations. --- Lawyers.

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Law of civil procedure --- Flanders

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Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) encompasses a variety of practices for children from birth to primary education that can differ by caregiver, method, provision and type. Its importance is reflected in EU policy documents, that attribute three important functions to ECEC services. First of all, ECEC services are associated with higher maternal employment rates and more gender equality on the labour market. This is the economic function of ECEC: it entails that both men and women are able to reconcile their parental responsibilities with being employed. Second, child care has an educational function. It permits young children to acquire essential skills at a young age. Finally, ECEC services are also known as social equalizers. It is proven that high quality child care services play an essential part in tackling disadvantages between children from an early age on. In order to let everybody get most out of the advantages of ECEC, it is important to provide accessible, available and affordable high-quality childcare services for everybody. To keep the barriers for participation as low as possible and the participation rate as high as possible, insight is needed in the factors that influence this process of participation. Acquiring this insight in the process of participation is therefore the main goal of this dissertation. For this purpose, the role of system characteristics from the economic, egalitarian, labour market and family welfare regime was investigated for five dependent variables: participation, availability, access, affordability and quality of ECEC services. Our research question is formulated as follows: What system characteristics explain the between-country differences in the (a) participation rate/ (b) availability/ (c) access/ (d) affordability/ (e) quality of ECEC services? Participation is considered as the proportion households that used/wanted to use ECEC services or know somebody close outside the household that used/wanted to use ECEC services in the last 12 months. Data consisted of two levels: the household-level and the country-level. All household-level variables (dependent variables + control variables) were retrieved from the EQLS 2012 data. Independent country-level variables were collected from online external sources for the 30 EU-countries under investigation in the EQLS dataset. Hypotheses for ECEC participation were tested by means of a logistic multilevel regression on the EQLS 2012 data. For availability, access, affordability and quality of ECEC services (the quality indicators of ECEC), a cumulative logistic multilevel regression was performed. Large differences exist between EU countries when it comes to use and quality of child care services. These between-country differences are best explained by the labour market regime. Regimes that succeed in activating unemployed or inactive citizens to the labour market are the regimes that are associated with higher participation rates. Also, more equal countries in terms of gender equality and social exclusion have higher participation rates and perceived quality. Next to the labour market regime and egalitarian regime, the family welfare regime also has an important role to play in boosting ECEC participation. The conclusions of this research bring us a step closer in shaping a comprehensive idea of the mechanisms underlying the participation process of ECEC.