To be surprised how posh most lawyers are?

[eggtat]

I grew up in a mining area in the north east. Not a poor background but parents never had much money. I was the clever kid in school, worked my socks off and got a law degree from cambridge. Then moved to London for work.

I thought that law firms would be full of people like me and some posh people. In my office I’d say a an overwhelming majority of people come from what I’d consider a posh background - parents who are professors, diplomats, barristers, partners at law firms, senior accountants etc.

People who grew up privileged, good private schools, academic households, then onto a top uni.

good point

I’ve just looked at solicitor jobs in London. Partners are looking at £80k per year and that’s with only 8 years experience. ( regional firm- family law)

some were posted in 80-120k range.

Maybe someone can correct me, but I think the average mid career solicitor is likely to be on more than average of £65k ?

but maybe I’m wrong? Any London lawyer willing to admit they earn less than six figures on mumsnet?

@Verydemure

For non partners, here's an example of a London family lawyer salary.

(Yes, it's outer London - but still high house prices compared to many other parts of the UK, and I've also seen similar salaries for lawyers with firms in the City of London (not magic circle or corporate law).

Between £30-50K.

https://www.douglas-scott.co.uk/jobs/61399/family-solicitor?

For partners (in family law), average according to this is £85,051 in London.
https://www.thelegists.co.uk/salary-checker/partner-salary-in-london-280

For comparison it's £77,501 in the East Midlands
https://www.thelegists.co.uk/salary-checker/partner-salary-in-east-midlands-280

And £70,001 in the NE of England
https://www.thelegists.co.uk/salary-checker/partner-salary-in-north-east-280

Taking into account house prices, the average family law partner would be better off outside London.

@Sparklywhiteteeth I was trying to make a bit of a joke, and failing I guess. But why is it the silliest? Is there no element of truth in my attempted joke?

This!

I'm really surprised that anyone would feel the need to comment on that.

sort of this but they are just regular middle class posh, not really posh! Yes top schools, but many parents with healthy to very healthy incomes rather than very rich.

I disagree OP

I come from a mining area in the north east too. My colleagues were diverse from all different backgrounds and social classes. Overwhelmingly women though.

Vets I think are posh but lawyers no.

I'm not London but we had fully qualified staff on half that..It was public sector though.

When people embark on further education and then join professional outfits their accents soften, regress to the mean, and often adapt to fit in. I would be careful to assume that people are ‘posh’ with certain backgrounds. My DH’s colleagues assume he is privately school educated when he went to a rough as nuts school and his parents were factory workers. Unless someone has told you their background don’t assume

I'm a lawyer and from an ordinary working class/lower middle class background. It is unusual though. I've definitely been not posh enough for some clients (or law firms) but seem posh to some parts of my family.

I've never purposely changed my accent other than when we moved (only a few miles away) when I was 11, to a more middle class area and kids at school took the piss out of my broader accent.

I'm on less than six figures, not much less though. I work for a small association and love my job. I wouldn't work for a law firm again if they doubled my salary. And once you get to six figures, if you are only just into that range, because of tax you end up with less for doing a lot more.

Not true! My DS doesn't know anyone with influence. As I said earlier in this thread, (which has been ignored), he went to a state comprehensive, then to a non Russell Group uni. Did his vacation scheme, got a training contract at 21, and qualified as a solicitor at 24 (I think!) London firm. I realise how lucky he was to get a training contract, because he told me how few there are out there. Me and his dad are not from a legal background, don't know any lawyers. Well, apart from DS and his friend who is a barrister. I've met a couple of his colleagues, not posh! Lots of uninformed sneering on this thread, and it's very very annoying!

I have a friend from a working class background who is a solicitor earning well. However the ones I know in MC firms or similar have tended to come from a very narrow background.

Yes me neither. I went to an ex-poly university, no clue about applying for vacation schemes and timing, particularly as I did joint honours with French and a year out there. I worked for two years as a paralegal after my degree then went back to law school for a year, working four evenings a week to support myself. With my experience I was suddenly an attractive candidate, got a training contract with a good City firm and they paid off my professional career loan. No contacts whatsoever, I was the first person to go to university in my family.

I think other careers are much harder to get into - TV, film, journalism or creative careers for example are very posh and nepotistic. And often requires working for years for very little money. That's not the case with law. I'd love to have done something creative but always felt the pressure to get a proper job and earn money.

I’m just thinking back to my training contract in the MC. My first trainee supervisor was incredibly posh, as in he used to be ribbed by the team as sounding like Prince Charles when he spoke. I said upthread that I was first generation of my family to go to University, which I did from state school.

The main thing I remember is how absolutely lovely he was as a colleague, how much he taught me and what a laugh we had. I had been to Cambridge like him so I felt intellectually equal, albeit less experienced.

(I’m Scottish though, so I’ve always been able to sidestep the English prejudices around regional accents as class indicators.)

I’m struggling to understand why having “posh” colleagues is a bad thing on a personal level, though I can see that the majority being privileged is not so good on a societal level.

It’s also important to remember that most big City law firms are part of international networks with offices and clients all over the globe. Strong accents tend to soften due to working with lots of clients and colleagues whose first language is not English.

I’m really surprised that you have a law degree from Cambridge and use the word posh.

To all the people agreeing with this comment, can you please explain what you mean?

Do you mean that you think that everyone who studies law at Cambridge is automatically posh themselves? Or that “posh” is a sort of colloquial/slang term and you’d expect a Cambridge law graduate to express themselves more articulately?

They mean that the UC themselves don’t use the term ‘posh’ for someone ‘well-born’ (they use ‘smart’), but that makes zero sense unless you think that attending Cambridge automatically elevates you socially to the point where you use the vocabulary of the UC.

What I meant was that the OP who is clearly intelligent used the word posh, yes she could have explained herself more articulately.

The word posh is a word oven used in a derogatory way but the OED definition is “stylish, luxurious, elegant, refined or upper class”.

The OP went on to say she thought her colleagues would be “ people like me”.
They are people like her, they are intelligent and have worked hard to gain a degree, they have a career in a prestigious profession.

I really dislike the use of the words, posh, common, lower class, working class etc.
I believe we are all equal but very different.

Oxbridge are taking far mor pupils from state schools so I’m sure there will be in the future hopefully a greater mix of young people entering the law profession.

I suspect that is not what those agreeing with you thought you meant!

I agree, it’s getting posher. Wasn’t great 20 years ago when I trained, and I found it a bit hard to relate to people talking about their ski holidays etc.

My feeling now from those I meet is that it’s increasingly posh. though some are faking - I learned to use the ‘right’ accent and talk about possible ‘right’ holidays…

The OP was making a point about social class, though. You may not like that social class exists and still determines to an extent things like what jobs school-leavers aim for, but the OP isn’t obliged to adopt that view. She simply said she was surprised that most of her colleagues at a London law firm seemed to come from a fairly uniform background of privilege when she had expected more of them to come from her type of background.

‘Posh’ isn’t necessarily derogatory, and it’s very subjective. It can just be shorthand for ‘someone I perceive as coming from a higher social class than I do.’ Posh Spice was lower-middle class, for instance, but clearly struck whoever was doing the Spice Girls branding as plausibly ‘posh’ in a way that she wouldn’t have seemed to the OP’s colleagues.

I think law is heavy going and boring and hard work. Unless you can see that pot of gold at the end through personal experience then a bright kid probably wouldn't bother .
A relative has now got to mid 50's and is mental rich but it's been a slog of hard work . His children going to university are now interested in doing law because they recognise it's an eventual route to a lot of wealth. If they hadn't personally seen that, there is no way they would countenance it. And so this will go on. Lawyers breed lawyers,

Depends on the type of law, and plenty do what they love, be it litigation or environmental. There are plenty pf jobs which are heavy going, hard work or boring. And evidentially due to uptake bright kids bother every single day.