We keep hearing about the improvement in the housing market and, as a conveyancing solicitor, I can certainly vouch for this.

To hold on to my job in 2008, I took a pay cut of 49% (including benefits). I am now billing (and have been billing for the last year) the same amount that justified my old salary. However, my firm refuses even to consider returning me to my former salary, arguing that ‘those days have gone’.

While I acknowledge that there are many conveyancers out there without work, and I should be grateful for a job, do employers not have an obligation to be fair, especially if billing has returned to pre-recession levels? Or will they only listen if the jobs market returns to pre-recession levels and there is an abundance of jobs out there for me to apply for?

Solicitor, name and address supplied