A 1960s comparison between what solicitors earnt in their careers, against other professions, and why people should choose to enter the legal profession.

Law Society’s Gazette, March 1960

Professional incomesThe Royal Commission on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration included research into how much solicitors were likely to earn in their careers. Questionnaires were sent out to 2,588 solicitors and the Commission found that a solicitor in England & Wales could expect to receive between the ages of 30 and 65 average total earnings of £88,000 [ie around £2,500 per year], compared with average total earnings over the same period of £105,000 for actuaries, £92,000 for members of the Bar, £84,000 for all classes of National Health doctor and also for graduates in industry, £78,000 for all classes of dental practitioner, £71,000 for accountants, £67,000 for solicitors in Scotland, £63,000 for surveyors and £54,000 for architects.To say these figures will come as a surprise to many is to earn for oneself a considerable reputation as a master of understatement.

Law Society’s Gazette, March 1970

Random ramblingsAll power to the elbow of the Member of Parliament who complained that a great many young typists were being grossly overpaid… And now I see the Associate Members have burst into print complaining of their small remuneration in comparison with that obtained by industrial trainees. Surely they considered this when deciding to choose the law as a profession? If the expectation of financial rewards is the only inducement for their wanting to become solicitors then I beg them to think again and look elsewhere for their future careers. The profession would not be what it is today if solicitors had put self before service. The practice of the law, like cricket and the Gilbert & Sullivan operas, is a way of life. You either like it or you don’t. If you do then you give it all you have got and, sometimes, the financial rewards come, but if these do not there is always the satisfaction of having done what you wanted to do.

GA Dodsworth