Former CBI chief Lord Digby Jones, now a government minister, has called on large law firms to stop 'working people into the ground' in pursuit of 'the holy grail of partnership'.


Lord Jones, a former solicitor, said firms and solicitors behaved like this 'just because it was always done that way... That has got to come to an end'.



Addressing the inaugural Financial News legal awards in London, Lord Jones admitted that he had done the same while in practice at Birmingham firm Edge & Ellison (as was) in the 1980s and 1990s, latterly as senior partner - 'and I know it was wrong'.



He said firms had to take steps to change, rather than just talk about it, 'otherwise we're going to kill the very spark, the very egalitarianism and open society that lawyers are'.



The former CBI chief added: 'There are loads of lawyers, especially women, who could make a difference to our society over the next 20 years if we had a system that encouraged them and didn't work them to death.'



Neil Rose