#FatCatLawyers & #LegalAidHeroes

It would be nice to have precise numbers of the firms we have helped in our 19-year history. We don’t and have not the records to do a retrospective count. It will certainly be over a thousand and that is before you count training delegates.

That is quite a lot.

I can however truly say that I have never met a fat cat legal aid lawyer. We certainly still have some very well performing firms on our books and kudos to them; this success follows a professional lifetime devoted to building a successful business after decades of hard graft. And still even the top earners are not outstripping “fat-cat” surgeons or other senior public sector professionals. Very few earn as much as senior civil servants, like the MoJ/LAA top brass.

Such firms are however a growing minority. More commonly we witness practices just getting by, some with a struggle and the shutters coming permanently down is, sadly, increasingly common.

Probably the most accurate salary comparison is one we have made before to teachers, with pay scales from £22 – £37K. (This mirrors the range for most duty solicitor job adverts).

This is not a startling new finding or beyond the research skills of those peddling inaccurate myths about “the most expensive Legal Aid system in the world”. And yet the fat cat lawyer nonsense still pervades what should, by now, be a rational discussion about sustaining access to justice. This will only be possible with reasonable remuneration for our #legalaidheroes.

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One comment on “#FatCatLawyers & #LegalAidHeroes

  • Agree with your comparison financially with teachers, the comparison stops however, at retirement time. Solicitor on final salary pension? Er..

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