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I am being told a consistent story by pretty well everybody I meet, whether secretarial grade or fee earner grade, and at just about every type of firm in the country from Magic Circle to High St. The pressure at work is phenomenal. As a general rule it isn't fun working for solicitors' firms at present.

In essence, in order to keep to a minimum the kind of thing done by Sovani James, Peter Naylor, and Esteddar Macgregor people need to be handling far fewer files, and those files that are being handled need to be more profitable because fee earners can charge a higher hourly rate and / or the overheads of the firm are lower, and bills, particularly at High Street firm level, have to be paid. Too many bills today are "pay me if your feel like it".

Last week's Law Society Gazette made for depressing reading, or at least it did for me. There was a long piece on what Chancery Lane was supposedly doing for us, none of which seemed to me to be of any help in turning round what is in effect a long standing deterioration in the terms of trade for solicitors' firms, particularly at High Street firm level, nor, it has to be said, the bullying of fee earners by clients of firms at all levels, including City firms doing company - commercial.