Total number of same in 2009 : approx. 80,000. Population 58 million. Disproportionate increase ?

Number offering legal aid services to the poor and vulnerable in a time of recession ? No exact figures but small and undoubtedly decreasing due to legal aid cuts. A source of shame and storing up social disintegration for the future (if you have kids, ergo care about that sort of thing).

Some of those people would undoubtably make very decent entrepreneurs (that’s not the only option I would advocate but since making money is something of a focus) if only they had not been so channelled into believing that the professions were the only way to make a coin. Yes there is risk and you have to be able to take that step but much of the the fear preventing them from doing so is prescribed by external influences rather than being inherent in those individuals.

So these restructuring processes may be blunt tools (and may be used cynically) but there will also be people who are set free who and will come to the relisation that they can seize the opportunity play to their strengths whatever they may be.

Interesting comments. I for one am in the legal profession almost exclusively for the money, there are occasional moments, let us say flashes, of job satisfaction but these are few and far between. But what other reason exactly is there to work No.7? To work with children and animals? Do something worthwhile? No thanks, not if you quite reasonably expect a certain quality of life for yourself and your family. To expect everyone to do a job they love is utter nonsense. Money talks. Dirty cash I want you. Dirty cash I need you oh-oh.

And because you are in something solely for the money, does not mean you are bad at your job. That is an over simplification. One point I do agree entirely with no.7 is that why are people surprised? We work in a cut throat profession where inevitably partners protect their own profit margins. of course they do. I would. You would as well, and if you say otherwise you area liar. It doesn’t make it any less sickening to see your best friends losing their jobs, or make you fear for your own job any less. But it is hardl suprising.

If anyone fancies a couple of special brews down at the park, let me know.

All the best.

If firms were purging themselves of this driftwood, it would be a good thing for the profession and, for some at least, the individuals concerned. The trouble is that the people losing their jobs aren’t necessarily the people who shouldn’t have had them in the first place.

I don’t understand why people are surprised about the job cuts. The same thing happens in every financial downturn. Anyone who thought that it was reasonable to get into lots of debt on the basis that they’dl never lose their job must have a total disregard for recent history.

Yes life under the open sky, away from the tedium and stress of a job in the law and the restraints of all the creature comforts we have come to rely upon is truly a release. I wholeheartedly agree with this well thought out and well reasoned article.

All the best.