Worlds apart

The legal professions in the two dominant common law jurisdictions are becoming increasingly characterised by contrasts.

Figures from an annual survey in the US show that it is boom time for the top commercial law firms in America.

The top-100 law firms in the States saw their earnings rocket upwards in 1999 by more than 17% over the previous year, which in turn was about 15% up on 1997.This wealth is spreading across the pond as the leading commercial US and English firms become more closely linked - mergers in addition to those between Clifford Chance and Rogers & Wells and last week's between Titmuss Sainer Dechert and Dechert Price & Rhoads are almost inevitable.

The big players in the City are doing very well on their own, but added US value could make them even more profitable.There is absolutely nothing wrong with the profitability and success of the major UK and US law firms, but it must be contrasted against the difficulties currently being faced by lawyers at the coal face of social welfare and criminal practices.

We are in the middle of a week of action staged by the Legal Aid Practitioners Group.

It is designed to bring home to the government the message that while lawyers specialising in state funded work acknowledge that they will always be on a different pay planet compared with their commercial cousins, they must be paid fairly.The fact that the US legal aid system is in an even more parlous state will be of little comfort to practitioners here.

Ministers would be well advised to stop their personal infighting and take heed of a warning that has real implications for the long-term health of our society.