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I find the biggest challenge for our profession is lawyers that are prepared to work for ridiculously low fees - often lower than 10 years ago - leading to significant write offs or alternatively low quality work which I am not prepared to do. Increasingly even with reputable firms I am observing serious reduction in quality. It seems no one researches anymore in many cases - this time must be paid for- we can’t just base our costs on what is produced but actually the work that needs to be undertaken behind the scenes. I am pleased to have been able to resist this trend as I simply will not act but not without resistance until clients see the difference in quality of the end result. The reality is you get what you pay for. It is critical to time record very accurately to avoid challenge but also to prove value as I know so many of us provide far more than we ever charge for (if we are any good!)

My message to my colleagues who are prepared to live a sub standard life by low earnings is you are not doing us a favour - the standard of the profession is being jeopardised and we would all earn more in HR these days which is ridiculous.we are the poor man of the professions. . For too long our profession has been batterded- ever heard of accountancy fees being so regularly challenged ? No - they are confident enough as a profession not to expose themselves to that and to work collectively for the interest of the profession over all. I didn’t do law to be poor - I work far too hard for that. Time for our profession to adopt some standards! It’s too easy to get law degrees now with a flood of different graduates from all over the world entering the UK profession / no controls adding to a rat race to the bottom. It’s a mess!