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?

Wrong thread! Not sure how that happened 🙄

I worked for a criminal barrister about 20 years ago. No idea exactly how much she earned but she owned a v big country house and ran a v expensive lifestyle. My god, did she earn it though. She worked through the night several times a week, as well as enduring the trauma of dealing with rapists, murderers, child abusers etc. She was lovely though and somehow managed to remain cheerful.

There are also massive regional variations. Someone with 10 years’ service in the North Eastern bar will likely charge less than someone in a comparable chambers but in London who has 2 years’ active work.

Remember they pay for everything out of fees though, laptop, phone, travel, textbooks, chambers fees, insurance, tax, pension, NI, professional subs. Imagine if everything you touched at work came out your own pocket and arose from you own endeavours. You’d want £1800 for a meeting too (which was probably several hours prep plus the meeting itself). Bargain.

In London commercial sets...a lot. Definitely in the hundreds of thousands and if you're a QC lucky enough to do an independent investigation or inquiry then those earnings might run into the 7 figures. I'm sure it varies in regions and practice areas but as a solicitor we wouldn't pay a barrister less than £10k for a mediation normally. The total mediation costs for our client can be around £30-40k.

What I will say though is that all the barristers I know or have worked with work incredibly hard. That money is hard earned, the stress is immense and the deadlines are very tight.

My DH is a barrister ( crime) in a northern city. He ends up with about £30 to 40k as take home and that's after 12 years experience. As pp have said everything needs to be paid for - professional insurance, training, IT equipment, access to legal papers etc. Fees have stayed pretty much static the whole time he's been working, I think a bail application is £48 which can involve prep the evening before and a 100 mile round trip. Often it's 2 or 3 bail application in a day but even so...

Thanks for the replies. It seems that in the provinces, the image one conjures up of a barrister does not fit with the salary!

I was having a nose at some chambers in Northern cities and other 'provincial' cities and lots have pretty bog standard 2.1's from say Newcastle or Manchester etc. Therefore don't seem very hard to get into.

Whereas the city chambers are scarily competitive. The very top seem to be solely Oxbridge, and even then first in their entire year. Nonetheless, I suppose it's only natural that the highest paying jobs go to those with the "best" qualifications.

In my previous job we paid our criminal barrister £260 an hour, in my current role we pay a lot more than that for a solicitor, private commercial, a barrister would be very expensive!