I was
recently telephoned by a journalist who wanted a discussion about a brain drain
that was supposedly happening in the UK. Working on behalf of a couple of banks
and their news feed, the journalist had been handed a brief to write an article
about the supposed brain drain that was occurring from rural and town locations
into a couple of large cities, which is where most lawyers were based. The
journalist wanted to know if we had come across this phenomenon and if I could
give him a quote about it.
Thinking
back, what I ought to have done was immediately record the conversation so that
I did not have to dictate this and produce a new article entirely! But
unfortunately I was not that fast in thinking.
As pretty
much any solicitor in the UK will probably tell you, this particular assertion
by the banks is virtually impossible to have occurred and is a non-news story,
simply because of the wide divide between corporate and high street law. The
journalist had been informed that solicitors practices on the high street were
struggling to recruit solicitors because the large corporate firms in the cities
were recruiting them all.
This exposed
a deep misunderstanding in the way the legal profession in the UK is
structured, and I am surprised that no-one in the banks concerned actually
knows what the difference is between
varying types of law firms. So the first part of this article is
entitled ‘city versus high street law firms’.
City v high
street law
There are two
different streams to law and it is important to understand the difference. The
first of these streams is the corporate world, and the second of the streams is
the high street. It is very rare that the two actually meet.
We understand
that at present there are between 110,000 and 120,000 solicitors in England and
Wales. From these 110,000+ solicitors probably around 85,000 of them work in
high street or local authority roles that pay salaries of up to around £50,000.
These
solicitors are collectively referred to as high street solicitors or, if preferred,
non-corporate solicitors.
The remaining
solicitors, probably around 25,000, possibly less than this, work in large
corporate law practices. Their usual client range consists of blue chip
companies and internationally based high net worth individuals with blue chip
companies or large trusts. These are the corporate lawyers and there is a very
large gap between the solicitors who inhabit this world and those who work on
the high street.
The main
difference is that corporate solicitors act on behalf of corporate bodies and
in some cases large public institutions such as the NHS or the government. They
very rarely act on behalf of individuals or undertake any types of law that
relate to individuals rather than corporates or companies. The high street
firms act on behalf of individuals and small businesses, commonly known as SMEs
(small to medium sized enterprises). Payment levels are considerably less than solicitors
who work in the high settings tend to have hourly rates to their customers
billed at between £150 per hour and £300 an hour. City lawyers start their
billing at around £250 per hour and head rapidly upwards.
As a result
of these billing levels, salary ranges are astonishingly different. On the high
street, as indicated, most solicitors earn less than £50,000 for the duration
of their entire career. I should say that this is £50,000 per annum (i.e. per
year) and this is because the returns from high street law tend to be extremely
different to those from corporate law.
In corporate
firms trainee solicitors can be earning £50,000 per year with the vast majority
spending the overwhelming part of their career on six figure salaries, reaching
well up towards the £250,000 to £500,000 income bracket. This is a very
different world and one of the reasons the journalist’s line of enquiry was so
wrong is that it is really rare for a high street solicitor to end up in a
corporate law firm.
How hard is it
for a high street solicitor to become a corporate commercial solicitor?
It is probably
easier to get elected as an MP than it is to cross from high street law into
commercial law. It does not happen and the vast majority of the 85,000
solicitors or so who practise on the high street or in similar types of roles
will never see the inside of a corporate law office unless they take a second
job emptying the bins.
This is
usually because of the stringent entry requirements required to get into
commercial law firms compared with the high street. To become a corporate
commercial solicitor working in one of the large London practices, whether Magic Circle, Silver Circle or Legal 100, it is usual to have exemplary
academics, good connections, an outstanding level of work experience prior to
entering into the profession, and a whole wealth of extracurricular activity
that lends itself to promoting particular candidates over others.
So for most corporate
commercial solicitors it would be very rare indeed to see one with a 2:2 law
degree or any A levels that do not have the letter A in them. Similarly one
would expect to see a degree from a high quality Russell Group University or
Oxbridge, details of top quality work experience on vacation placements with
large London law practices, and plenty of extracurricular activities probably
involving debating, team sport and a high level of attainment.
You would not
expect to see a candidate with a 2:2 law degree from the University of
Wolverhampton working for Clifford Chance. Please contact me if I am incorrect
in this assertion as I would love to be able to highlight your case!
These are
simply harsh realities and as ever with these articles please don’t shoot the
messenger! Most high street solicitors will have similarly good academics, but
just not as good as corporate lawyers unless they have deliberately chosen not
to enter the corporate commercial field, as some do. There are benefits of not
working for corporate commercial firms – having a family life or undertaking
activities away from the office are usually two things that solicitors find
difficult working for large London corporate firms who require 12 to 18 hour
days at times, and put their solicitors under huge amounts of pressure to work
flat out, including at weekends. Helpful if you are a workaholic, but a
nightmare if you are trying to run a football team on behalf of your children
for example.
Most high
street solicitors will be quite content with their lot, but even if they are
not, the chance of them moving into a corporate field and contributing to the
total brain drain that a couple of banks appear to have invented is virtually
impossible, and I have to say that if banks are thinking this there is
something seriously wrong with their knowledge of the legal profession.
What is a Corporate Commercial Solicitor?
During this
article I have referred to corporate commercial solicitors but not really
defined what these are. Corporate commercial law is a description that covers a
wide area of law that usually relates to work being undertaken for large
companies and commercial entities. So for example it will include the
administration of companies, the drafting and approval of commercial contracts,
the involvement of solicitors in the mergers and acquisitions of companies and
other commercial entities, the finance that is going on behind the scenes to
fund the activities of companies, and lots more besides. High street law and
working for the private individual can be the conveyancing of property, the
drafting and administering of wills (and of course probate after death), any
litigation that individuals find themselves in, any litigation that small
companies find themselves involved in (usually referred to as commercial
litigation), and all other things that relate to individuals and small
businesses rather than the intricate workings of corporate entities. It is
quite an easy term to use to differentiate commercial work from high street
work, and these two particular definitions should be considered in tandem with
each other in the same way that contentious and non-contentious law are.
