To ask how much a barrister earns?

[interviewed]

I read an interesting thread on here from ten years ago, regarding the pay of barristers. I wonder how much this has changed within such period.

I understand this is an incredibly personal and varying question though!

If you are a barrister, around how much do you earn?

The barrister I recently used charged £1800 for a meeting that lasted about 60/70 mins. His fee for preparing and attending a mediation session was £5000. Fucking ridiculous!

Some barristers who are junior and dependent upon Legal Aid don't even cover their costs - the disparity in pay is a scandal and is causing some to leave the profession. Secret Barrister's blog has a fair amount of discussion of this and the underfunding of criminal work.

No idea about barristers in other areas of law.

Another issue is being self-employed. There are quite a lot of costs that have to be paid out of income before it's actually what's left for you, you're often waiting to be paid, and having to chase up money owed. Life can swing between feast and famine, but it usually balances out. The hours are long, you spend quite a lot of time on trains or the motorway travelling to courts, or having wasted journeys or waiting around, and you're often working on papers at home most early mornings, late evenings, and weekends, which eats into family and social time. It's difficult to give a ballpark figure, because it varies so much.

Not always as much as you’d think. I have a friend that that tried for a few years and didn’t really make enough money to live off. He converted and became a city lawyer earning huge amounts and became a partner quite quickly. He had the talent, family support and drive but struggled financially as a barrister so I can only imagine how hard it would be if you were from a more deprived background to have a chance of breaking into the profession.

There are a lot of factors so impossible to give a ball park figure even down to the type of law that they specialise in. E.g family law is less than human rights law.

Following with interest as DP is reapplying for the bar. I don't think he has actually considered the less glamorous side of it or that he might have a considerable earnings drop, at least initially.

It depends on their experience , skills and how in demand they are surely ? So some will get shit loads . Some not

There is a huge range. A junior doing criminal work? Very little. A silk doing tax advisory in London? Probably several hundred thousand.

Nothing for a long time, probably years. It's very tough.

As for 'ridiculous' fees, there's always the option to use somebody cheaper if you prefer.

The barrister I recently used charged £1800 for a meeting that lasted about 60/70 mins. His fee for preparing and attending a mediation session was £5000. Fucking ridiculous!

Then why didn’t you pick someone cheaper? You didn’t have to go for such an expensive one...

The fees might look huge (not always- I have to instruct barristers a lot and sometimes a few note comes in that I think is actually really low) but they have to pay chambers, their own training, insurance I guess, etc. No sick pay, no death in service, no employer pension contributions. Plus all those years of training and then earning very little to start with.

I don’t think it’s as easy as it looks. 3 friends have left the bar relatively recently, and two of them at least were billing really well, so not a case of them being rubbish. Just a crazy lifestyle and what they ended up making out of it wasn’t worth it for them.

Then why didn’t you pick someone cheaper? You didn’t have to go for such an expensive one...

Yes you would have known this in advance. If I choose the most expensive plumber I can find to unblock my loo I can’t really moan about it!

Also it’s not about the time he/she spent with you- there will have been prep so the 60/70 minutes thing isn’t really relevant.

YABU in asking, actually. You might as well ask what a company director earns.

A barrister doing legal aid crime work, with around 20 years call, will earn around £20k or less. A barrister doing commercial litigation acting for blue chip companies might earn up to £150k. QCs earn more. There are always those that earn stellar figures, but the ones quoted by the press might have received such sums in one year for work done in multiple years, as they take so long to get paid in some cases.

It varies depending on the type of law. Human rights earns peanuts compared to corporate litigation, for example.

I have an ex who’s a barrister. His pre-tax profits were £120k (significantly less after tax of course). I did his tax returns which is how I know! And he was mid-thirties having been practising for about 4 years.

Can literally be /anything/. Some are really very poorly paid (at least relative to the other options that people of their education etc could have) and on 20k. Some on 1m. Really really depends. (More than most other jobs.)

I know some who earn a lot and others who earn very little for the amount of work they do (read: a hell of a lot compared with most professions).

I would say that there are more earning small/middle of the road incomes than there are earning the big bucks though.

The barrister I recently used charged £1800 for a meeting that lasted about 60/70 mins

They didn't charge £1800 for the meeting. They charged that for the meeting plus going through all the papers, preparing, considering/researching the relevant law - and, of course, for several years of study and experience giving them the expertise which you needed.

Next to nothing in criminal. Seriously. You would likely earn more as a teacher for many years.

You might as well ask what a writer earns. Some of them earn so little they need a second job to pay the bills meanwhile others are raking in millions. It just depends on how good they are (at their job, at networking with solicitors, at politics within chambers).

@curlykaren that’s pretty cheap. You have to remember that after paying chambers, taxes (barristers are self employed but pay the same tax as employees which is a higher rate generally) and travel costs they would only end up with about half that for hours and hours of work (even your meeting would involve them going back and doing notes etc plus any travel).

I have a few friends that are barristers and it's barely enough to survive on and two of them have side jobs. One is in property law and that's a bit more than environment/legal aid cases. They're also sent all over the UK with little notice.

My friend managed to piss off their clerk in the chambers somehow and was often one afternoon in Cornwall and the following morning in Durham and they couldn't say anything.

It doesn’t depend on ability only. Also on field. Criminal is completely different to corporate. You can’t get paid more by networking - a case is paid what it gets paid. Someone I know is a senior barrister - been practicing for 25!years. High profile cases not driving offences. In a bad year they’ll make 25k and then have to pay chambers fees out of that. They have literally just become a higher rate tax payer for the first time.

Depends on the area of law and level of seniority to be honest. Some at the lower levels live pretty much hand to mouth. Senior levels and QCs are raking it in. So afraid that’s very much a how long is a piece of string question.

Also what amazes me is they get sent to a distant town to do a case, pay travel and hotel costs from their own pocket and, if the hearing gets cancelled for some reason, they are not paid anything and have to take the expenses on the chin.