I have to take issue with something Lord Neuberger said in his recent Bentham lecture. ‘Now, it is no part of my function to defend lawyers’ fees,’ said the master of the rolls, ‘although I would say that, unless you pay lawyers properly, you won’t attract able people to the legal profession, and if you don’t attract able people to the legal profession, you will undermine the rule of law.’

He has recycled the classic pay argument, currently favoured by senior bankers defending claims that salaries in their industry are too high: you must offer good money to attract the brightest people to your industry. Personally, I hate this argument, because it promulgates the myth that clever people only work for money, and that well-paid people have some kind of innate integrity.

The Beast of Bolsover, otherwise known as Labour MP Dennis Skinner, is a fine proponent (and advocate) of a different maxim: you can’t buy integrity. Love him or hate him, the former coal miner, an MP since 1970, has an exemplary record when it comes to attending debates, voting, and parliamentary expenses. When MPs complain that their public sector salary lags miles behind the private sector, he angrily points out that £60,000 a year puts them among the top 5% of earners. When MPs say that this nevertheless dissuades talented graduates from entering politics, he tells them that integrity cannot be bought.

Law is a profession, and there are many reasons for wanting to be part of it. Money may be one, and prestige another. Some might like the idea of bringing down a dodgy corporation in a courtroom, Erin Brockovich-style. Some might feel that their empathetic nature would make them a good a family lawyer.

Within the profession, I’ll bet that there are thousands of practising solicitors and barristers whose primary goal when entering the law was something other than earning money. As a law school graduate, I have watched my friends’ careers progress through a number of fields: family, marine insurance, conveyancing, corporate, and criminal law to name but a few. They did not all flock to the money offered in the City; indeed, the most intelligent among them probably earns the least, working the longest hours as a family lawyer.

Neuberger argues that the rule of law will be undermined if lawyers aren’t paid properly, but I think that argument is weak. The rule of law can just as easily be undermined by well-paid lawyers whose desire to earn money outstrips any desire to serve their clients well.