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.

Well it's definitely true that I watched that programme...

Also, saying that privately educated people are not a majority doesn't say much as they are such a small minority in society as a whole. They may still be over-represented, but I take the point that the poster thinks medicine is very diverse.

Yes me too and shock horror I grew up on an inner city London council estate

lol

*I’m not a lawyer but I know many lawyers socially in London and they are so homogenous it’s unreal.

All expensively educated then off to a Russell Group or Oxbridge for uni. All long for three kids (why always three?!) and a nice house in Dulwich. They enjoy renovating homes in their spare time as an outlet for their creativity.

I’m not even kidding - they’re all so incredibly similar and don’t even know each other. Good on you for breaking into such a closed world (hope that doesn’t sound patronising - it wasn’t intended like that) *

Load of rubbish! I’m a lawyer, my hobbies include mountain biking, bike packing, swimming and gardening. I have one child and love having one and don’t aspire to any more. I would hate to live in Dulwich.

My lawyer friends have a diverse range of backgrounds and interests and only one of them lives in Dulwich (she doesn’t have three kids or renovate houses though)

I saw it was a joke as soon as you hinted as to your profession, and I'd consider it dry humour and if delivered in person deadpan I would have laughed. But, problem is, MN is now full of extremely rude, unpleasant posters with agendas, who really can be quite vile, so because it was delivered in a dry way it was misunderstood. Also the poster you aimed it at was getting a hard time from someone who I do not think was joking, so she was probably in no mood. Hope this helps. I saw the humour in it. You would have to have been very, very rude to have intended it seriously!

It would've worked far better in person. It simply didn't translate as a joke in black and white on the page.

There were continued digs from her afterwards about a lack of sense of humour though, which were unnecessary. Just because a 'joke' fell flat due to how it was made, doesn't mean the people reading it as rude are humourless. It would've been better to apologise that it fell flat than carry on digging into a hole, IMO.

ETA: I imagine some barristers do think that as well though, so not a stretch to take it seriously.

There was no hole. Just bad tempered comments to me. Which was unfortunate. So I answered them. But not everything in life is understood as intended. 🤷‍♀️

@BoxOffice these are truly my experiences with London lawyers! I accept that anecdotes do not make things universally true. In fact, I’m very pleased to hear you say this is not the case. I also accept that I’m not a lawyer so others on this thread will know better. But it’s not a ‘load of rubbish’ in that literally these are the people I know. I’m not lying! I’m just describing them! I guess the OP is talking about magic circle type firms rather than a high street solicitors and the people I know working for these firms are indeed incredibly posh! But yes, it’s just anecdata from a handful of London lawyers in their mid to late 30s. I don’t work for the Sutton Trust. I’m honestly glad that you say this is not representative.

Bad tempered? Not really, just surprise you were so rude and expecting you to apologise, instead of doubling down. But maybe you read them as bad tempered.

See how it works?! 🤷‍♀️

Yeah, I get how words, meaning, interpretation, ambiguity and misunderstanding work. But thanks for the tip. (The last four words were sarcastic, just to be clear. But expressed without insult or rancour - again, just to be clear.)

Dulwich is lovely! Why would you hate to live there?

A lot of solicitors are pretty good at advocacy, it helps with negotiation, but choose not to go the barrister route because the job is completely different, the transactional work is different, the work environment is different and the salary arrangements are different and court work can be slow and frustrating. Not because they lack advocacy skills.

No idea what barristers think though! Barristers used to market to us.

I think it is a shame that what was a fairly lighthearted discussion took a down turn, and I did see the humour in what was written, as I said.

But if you did a law degree- particularly at Cambridge- you must have already known that, because you were surrounded by them there. I don’t blame you, I changed my mind about being a lawyer when I realised that the vast majority of my fellow law students were awful, and I’d spend my working life with them. They were all either little rich kids, spending daddy’s money and not caring because he’d give them a job anyway, or they were uber-swots competing over who could rack up the most hours in the library.

@Veebee89 our hobbies as a family are cycling, mountain biking, bike packing, hiking, (open water) swimming, paddle boarding, gardening, the great outdoors etc so Dulwich wouldn’t offer us the lifestyle we love.
not saying there is anything wrong with Dulwich and my friend who lives there loves it

@MotherofAllMatriarchs hobbies I’ve come across within my City lawyer friends & acquaintances include

running
cycling
mountain biking
surfing
snow sports
water sports
Theatre & performing arts
animals
cooking
DJ’ing
playing in a rock band
Writing comedy
Writing horror novels

Literally a diverse bunch

😂 this cracked me up! You are basically describing a Neilson/ Mark Warner holiday.

if you’d put bingo/keeping pigeons/darts/watching eastenders I’d have maybe taken the point

Agree @Verydemure !

Classic! 😂

Reading thread with interest.. Lawyers usually marry lawyers /barristers & the circle continues. Their children often also decide to follow in their parents footsteps.

Some lawyers.

Nothing "usually" about it.

A relative wanted to be a barrister in the early 80s. Middle class but not posh. State school, London university rather than Oxbridge, first class degree. Got called to the bar. Couldn’t get a pupillage in the field he wanted - chancery rather than criminal. There was so much of the old boy old school tie network. He became a solicitor eventually and worked for a City law firm.