How the other half (of the profession) lives

Image: J S Bolch

This is a post that I guess I have been meaning to write for years, even if I have only just realised it.

The realisation was prompted by a tweet I came across on Twitter a couple of days ago by a well-known, and I'm sure well liked, family lawyer. He tweeted a couple of pictures of one of his firm's offices, comprising plush, fancy, and no doubt expensive, furnishings. It is quite common for solicitors on Twitter to tell the world how lovely their offices are.

The pictures reminded me of the office of the last firm I worked for: old, dilapidated, and in serious need of renovation. I recalled in particular that the firm could not even afford to replace the threadbare (and frankly dangerous) carpet on the main staircase, which was held together by gaffer tape.

And that was by no means the only dilapidated office in which I worked during the course of my illustrious career. I remember, for example, taking a picture of the front of one office for use on the firm's website that I was building, and having to photoshop out the rotting frame of the main window.

Sadly, not all firms can afford plush offices and furnishings.

The reason, of course, is that not all firms can generate sufficient fee income for such luxuries. This is not because the fee earners in such firms are lazy. Far from it. The simple fact is that they don't work primarily for high net worth clients, whose money to sense ratio favours their lawyers. Those firms that I worked for had few or no such clients and, dare I say it, some did legal aid work, which as we all know barely pays the bills at all.

Oh yes, it makes you feel good providing legal help for the less well off in society, but don't expect rewards of the financial kind.

And on the subject of rewards I come to my bête noire: legal awards.

Legal awards are another great topic for lawyers to boast about on Twitter (almost as irritating as their mind-numbingly excruciating entries in the Legal 500). I really don't know if there is another profession that awards itself so many gongs as the legal profession. I suspect it may be due to the fact that we are so hated by the public, that no one else would ever give us an award.

But what exactly is the point of an award? "Family Lawyer of the Year". What does that mean? How can one out of thousands of family lawyers be singled out above all others? On what basis? And have those who are so graciously handing down the award checked the winner against all others? It is, of course, complete nonsense.

In my 25-odd years of doing family work I came across many other family lawyers. I never heard of any of them receiving an award of any sort, despite some of them being absolutely brilliant. Why might that be? The answer, quite simply, is that they never worked for one of the fashionable firms that crop up in award ceremonies year after year. And whilst there was never the remotest chance that I would ever have been shortlisted for an award, part of me wishes I was, simply so that I could tell them where to put it.

You see, we have a two-tier legal profession: those fashionable firms who bring in vast amounts of fee income, working primarily for high net worth clients, and those grass-roots firms who work for those of modest or low income, providing an essential service for little reward or recognition.