No need for shame over pay

It would be tempting for solicitors in the City of London to take a low-key approach to escalating rates of pay in the square mile, which we analyse in our feature pages this week.

The mainstream press needs little encouragement before it reaches for tatty cliches about overpaid lawyers.But on reflection, why should City law firms be ashamed of increased rates of remuneration? These magic circle practices operate in a true market economy.

Their salaries are supported by their fees and their fees are paid by clients who appear to be endorsing London as the city with arguably the greatest legal expertise in the world.

It will be interesting to see whether US firms in London - currently handing out salaries of more than 100,000 to newly qualified solicitors - will be able to maintain that pace.

More important is the fact that English firms in the City are providing quality service to heavyweight clients at home and abroad, as the UK invisible earnings figures support year after year.

Indeed, a British Invisibles survey this week as reiterated the dominance of London commercial firms in the field of international maritime law.

That such quality is rewarded commensurately should not be begrudged.Newspaper pundits gearing up for another round of lawyer-bashing on the back of the recent salary developments should remember there is often a price to pay for high remuneration.

The increasing health of one's salary can be directly linked to a decrease in one's physical health, as figures from SolCare, the counselling and advisory service to the legal profession, continue to prove.

It must also be remembered that far from every solicitor in the county is on the receiving end of high - or even fair - pay.

Lawyers doing state-funded work have been insulted year after year by successive governments come the annual legal aid pay round.

Although the vast majority of solicitors provide a high-quality service, not all of them are rewarded for it.