A certain amount of stress in life is vital.

No matter how romantic and ideal the image of lying around on a beach may be, most people would go stir crazy if they had to do it for more than a fortnight.

And indeed lawyers thrive on stress - cutting deals, negotiating settlements, court appearances, they all kick-start the adrenalin required for a quality performance.

The difficulty is striking a balance between the useful rush and the detrimental overload of stress and workload.

Now, in a judgment relating to stress in the workplace, the Law Lords have implicitly ruled that employers - including large corporate law firms - have to be careful.

Quite rightly, they cannot ignore crucial warning signs that assistants and salaried partners might be feeling the strain of too many late nights and weekends in the office.

But likewise the Lords recognised that there has also to be a level of personal responsibility and acceptance on the part of employees.

By any standard, City lawyers are well remunerated, and with that comes an expectation that high degrees of stress will come with the territory.

Ironically, the section of the solicitors' profession that should perhaps take most notice of the Lords ruling is high street legal aid practices.

Assistants and salaried partners battling in the criminal, family, social welfare and immigration fields are currently under massive pressure, yet for increasingly dwindling financial rewards.

Now that's stress.