Top City lawyers earn more than ten times the national average wage for legal professionals, a new survey has suggested.

The lawyer members of wealth management club The Route bring home an average of £573,000 a year – compared to the national average of £50,649.

Law is also the third most lucrative City career for those at the top of their game – behind trading, which pulls in an average of £1.45m for its most prolific earners, and those at the top in general finance, who earn an average of £1.03m.

The total average amount earned during the ‘peak’ 20 years of a career was found to be £10m for lawyers, £22m for traders and £15m for those in general finance.

However, many of the individuals surveyed said they were looking to retire or start a second career before they turned 50. Mark Worrall, managing director of The Route, said: ‘Many of our members work in intensely pressurised careers… while they have the opportunity to earn more than half a million a year, this part of their working life generally doesn’t last very long.’

The Route surveyed 350 of its members, including more than 100 lawyers.