It’s Tuesday 9 April, which is of course Be Kind To Lawyers Day. At a time of change for the legal profession, this 24 hour window of goodwill towards solicitors and barristers has never been more needed. Here are ten reasons why the public needs to show lawyers some love…
1: They get worked into the ground
Remember this Clifford Chance mother’s departure email? In fact, the amount of work lawyers have to do might be part of the reason why…
2: Most lawyers are stressed or depressed
Only 29% of lawyers who answered LawCare’s most recent survey hadn’t suffered from an emotional or addictive impairment.
3: Law rarely makes you rich
According to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, the average solicitor’s salary is £45,585, and the average for barristers and judges £40,242. Hardly fat cat levels. And for many these earnings are set to fall – with more legal aid cuts to be announced today, on Be Kind To Lawyers Day.
4: Those who do rake in the cash are bored out of their brains
Welcome to your new best friends: Track Changes, Find/Replace, and late-night Addison Lee.
5: Lawyers are constantly on the receiving end of hatred
Somewhere along the line, someone took Shakespeare’s “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” quote literally – and there was no turning back.
6. Yet lawyers are expected to meet higher standards of behaviour than the rest of the population…
Note the additional glee tabloid newspapers display whenever one of their stories features a member of the legal profession.
7. Lawyers are constantly badgered by their friends and family (who hate them) for free legal advice
All too often, this badgering takes place in the form of ridiculous requests, such as: “Is there a book somewhere called The Law that has all the law in it?” I’ll keep the name of the person who asked me this anonymous.
8: The status of the profession is about to plummet
New legal market entrants like the Co-op, Eddie Stobart Group and G4S = the opposite of Inns of Court prestige.
9. If for no other reason, be kind to lawyers because they’ll soon be less of them…
Big City firms are hiring 20 fewer trainees a year than they used to, while the Bar is set to shrink dramatically over the next few years.
10. …and the paralegals who replace the lawyers won’t make such fun pantomime villains.