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Clients do pay low fixed fees for high volume work, finola. And what about the rule of the law?

The future of law, I think, is lower working hours (because the money isn't there to motivate to work longer), but the production line business model will stay. Instead of having one solicitor on £35k with 300 files, you'll have three paralegals on £15k and with 100 files each. Law grads will soon recognise there isn't a hope to become a solicitor, so they'll settle. (Some say they'll go into other jobs, or grad schemes. What jobs? And grad schemes are just as competitive as the law.)

Working more than 40-hour weeks in the long term decreases productivity. There are articles galore on the net for people to check this out. Gen Y also says work/life balance is more important than ever before, alongside lower pay and intrinsic motivation for working rather than just money. Employers need to be offering something more. I think this is partly a reactionary attitude to low-pay service jobs, and partly an evolution in career mentality.