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From The Times

July 9, 2007

Why are lawyers miserable: want a list?

Sathnam Sanghera: Business Life

The juxtaposition of two stories in The Times last week – one reporting that top-flight City lawyers were charging as much as £1,000 an hour for their expertise, another that a quarter of lawyers wanted to leave their profession – raised a pertinent question: just why are those in the legal business so miserable?

The Law Society has recently been trying to provide an answer, but its “quality of life” review, taking the form of workshops, debates and online surveys, has been dragging on inconclusively like a complex fraud case and also seems to have missed some vital evidence from across the pond.

You see, as with everything else, America has been doing lawyer dissatisfaction bigger and better than us for decades. Polls have at various times established that not just a quarter, but up to 40 per cent of US lawyers want to leave their profession; and whereas British lawyers are only just waking up to the fact they are miserable and want to die, their American counterparts have been alert to it since 1989, which saw the publication of Deborah Arron’s Running From the Law: Why Good Lawyers are Getting Out of the Legal Profession.

Indeed, there are now almost more books, articles and websites dedicated to the subject of legal despair than there are American lawyers. Which is saying something, given that the USA has more lawyers than people.

And last week, to help the Law Society get to the point, I spent two bleak days sifting through the literature, a process that made it clear City lawyers are unhappy because of:

1. the dehumanising hours. Remember that bit in The Firm where Tom Cruise’s character is told that if he even thinks of a client in the shower, he should bill it?

Not only can one imagine this actually happening now – lawyers generally charge on the basis of billable hours, and annual targets can be brutal – but the shower might even be taken in the office. Many City firms offer beds and washrooms in offices to enable staff to work longer.

While those entering the profession may be prepared for this – an excessive workload is seen as a rite of passage – many don’t seem to realise that their reward for selling the best years of their lives is simply the privilege of being allowed to sell the rest of their lives in the capacity of partner.

Which, of course, negates the only advantage of being a lawyer: the cash. Leaving aside the question of whether money can make you happy, it is pretty obvious it won’t if you have no time to spend it.

2. the yawning gap between their intelligence and the mind-numbing nature of their work. The word “lawyer” may trigger images of attractive people making clever arguments in wood-panelled courtrooms, but most spend the majority of their time in back offices drafting and redrafting small print that almost no one will read. At least if you flipped burgers for a living you’d have the satisfaction of giving people momentary pleasure.

3. the yawning gap between the ideals of those entering the profession and the reality. Some go into law because they dream of fighting injustice, but discover on entering that most of what lawyers do benefits big business.

Others enter the profession because they are seduced by the apparent glamour of the trade, as portrayed in Ally McBeal and LA Law, only to find that the work is about as glamorous as getting a verruca (cf point 2). Then there are those graduates – as much as 47 per cent of the profession, according to a recent survey – who drift into the job because they don’t know what else to do, assuming vaguely that it might be fun, and find on entering that it is about as amusing as breaking a limb in a traffic accident (cf point 1). Repeatedly. For 90 hours a week.

4. the cumulatively lowering nature of the work. We all end up being shaped by our careers. Journalists become rude, incorrigible gossips. Police officers start believing what they read in the Daily Mail. Lawyers, meanwhile, become competitive, aggressive, judgmental, analytical, adversarial, emotionally detached, paranoid of being sued and, worst of all, pessimistic. Being a good lawyer involves assuming that people will do the most awful things and that treachery is to be expected. It’s inevitable that this negativity eventually seeps into their personal lives.

5. the vortex of hatred that envelops them entirely. I’m not only referring here to those surveys that put lawyers among politicians and journalists as the least popular of professionals. I’m also referring to the fact that lawyers despise each other (cf point 4), despise themselves (cf points 1, 2, 3,4), are despised by their clients (for charging too much, not always winning cases) and, in return, despise their clients back.

Handling others people’s problems, unless you are Mother Theresa or Esther Rantzen, eventually becomes tedious, especially when most of those problems relate to money.

6. the self-inflicted nature of their suffering. Because of the way City firms work, most senior lawyers, as well as having to spend too long doing too much dull work, are under intense pressure to attract new business. When dissatisfaction kicks in, it’s amplified by the fact that the work making them unhappy is self-imposed. It’s like waking up to find someone drilling a hole into your head, only to realise the sadist wielding the Black ‘n’ Decker is actually you.

Looking back over this list, I realise little of it is going to elicit much sympathy. Somehow, I can’t see the Red Cross diverting resources away from Darfur to come to the rescue of professionals earning £1,000 an hour.

But human misery isn’t relative, and I can’t help thinking these problems could be solved. All City firms need to do is take a moment or two to take a good look at themselves. But that must be difficult when time is (so much) money.

I write from a consumer point of view. I had to hire a lawyer for some business. I am fully aware of the charges that can ocur and was very wary. I had no need to be. She quoted me a flat rate and although the case was protracted, a flat rate it stayed. She knew that I could walk. I did not.

At one point I tried the other opposing solicitor ( who is what is really confusing to a girl such as I - same in hospitals you don't know what to call the people who help you!). The pound signs in the receptionist's eyes told the whole story. No I was not entitled to meet with the other lawyer. I was not "new money". Why the secrecy? I find it bewildering.

Why under the freedom of information act could I not exercise that freedom and find out just what was going on? It still mystifies me. I know of several young people who are studying law. What is wrong with "pro bono" work? You may not earn as much but at least you do not sell your soul!

Carlyle Braden, Croydon, U.K

A good lawyer is one who can free the guilty and convict the innocent.

Often the outcome of cases are merely determined by who can afford the most expensive lawyer.

Once they realise the nature of their profession it is hardly surprising they get depressed.

Keith Calder, Ashford Middlesex, England

Leaving on the day I qualified at a major city firm in London was one of the best things I have ever done.

I don't regret a minute of my two years there and I met some really good people, but there was no future in it. I, like a lot of my other lawyer friends, was robbed of my legitimate right to enjoy the work I was doing by the unhealthy hours that were imposed and the cynical approach taken by senior lawyers - who are largely miserable, by the way - to the resources around them.

I guess the crunch was when a senior corporate partner said to me "I earn more than I can spend and never see my two sons". Since leaving, I have qualified as a designer and my wife and I are trying for a baby, which I might actually get to spend time with.

In contrast, I haven't been able to meet up with any of my old trainee buddies from the firm, they are all working too hard, but then, since I left, they haven't seen each other either...and they work in the same building...

Paul, London,

Almost every career job has a downside. Lawyers you've mentioned. Doctors have a difficult time, teacher have to deal with misbehaving children, accountants are bored, salespeople have stressful targets to meet, creative types like actors have to fight constantly merely to make a living, soldiers have to go to Iraq. The only exception I can think of is my own career, computer programming. It just doesn't have an obvious snag.

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

Â£1,000 an hour, and I bet they still stick on an extra charge for photocopying. Gosh, that's about 50 quid every time they go to the lav.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

1. There are possibly 5 lawyers in the country who EARN (not bill) Â£1000 p/h and thats only if they don't work more than 7 hours a day (which they will)!!

2. Everyone is obsessed with the despicable things we (yes I am a solicitor) do. Most lawyers I know are commercial lawyers of some form or another and the most despicable thing they do is act in their clients best interest, which is what they are paid to do.

3. The hours you read about do happen outside if London but it certainly isn't the norm.

4. In reply to Ted Keating who thinks that lawyers attempt to bully and threaten(!!) their way through ALL relationships...how many lawyers do you actually know? You can't possibly know enough to generalise us all. Also, a high percentage of politicians (in Australia) may have legal degrees (so?) but a high proportion of Austrailians stem from criminals - need I say more!!?

Paul, Manchester,

I am a happy, recently qualified lawyer in the City.

Being a lawyer is about documenting relationships. As business structures become more complex, often because of national and international legislation on trade and tax, the legal documents echo the complexity.

But the principles of all service industries apply: Know your client, understand his vision/business and balance his aversion to risk with his desire to create.

Being a lawyer also requires empathy - probably why there are many former actors in the profession.

Frustrated lawyers are therefore people who don't want to work in a service industry or read someone else's lines. They want to be the end-users, not the service providers. Before theys start their own business, tho' , they might consider how many self-employed people doing "what they believe in" also work through the night and nap and shower in their offices - often their own homes!

Ofra Gilinsky, London (work)/Cambridge (home),

As a trainee about to leave the profession I can look back fondly at such memories as being told I may be "released" at 10.00 p.m. on Valentine's day, or hearing a partner tell an asian trainee that they have "a stupid name".

Stu, London,

I'm an associate for an international law firm which has experienced a wave of resignations in the last year. Paradoxically, because the departures have left partners wary of not antagonising the remaining associates, I work less, have more leverage to take vacations when I want and get paid more. Also, I happen to like what I do and the team I work with and have yet to challenge my conscience (or lie) for any of our "big business" clients. Remember that it's in the nature of legal work to complain, including about the nature of legal work.

As for W.'s claim that accountancy is more positive, perhaps he should look into the fate of Arthur Andersen and co. whose lies aided among the worst frauds of recent years.

Even though I'll soon take my money and buy a house in my home country to start a new career (which was my plan from the beginning), I'll mostly take good memories with me. To me, self-deprecating lawyers without a Plan B are not fit to be lawyers in the first place...

Your Mom, London, UK

One hopes that all those studying law at university read these postings. Also those with ideas of well renumerated careers in the litigation industry and hoping to go to Uni.

I have a suspician that a "beef mountain" of law graduates is being built up in order to bring down the salaries payed to potential legal eagles.

W D Toulman, Walkington, United Kingdom

Im a lawyer at a top US firm and I don't and never will earn Â£1000 per hour! We may get billed out at that but we poor employees earn a (comparative) pittance inexchange.

Mike Johnson, London, UK

Are not most of the Lawyers also the breed of politicains?
"Alastair Campbell has lifted the lid on the feuding between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair which has been a running sore for Labour since 1994." This is the first step to show that there are many ready to trip Mr.Brown now. I saw him having a chat with SKY correspondent Emma Crosby, in the train and I though to myself," Gee I have never seen the prime
minister travel in the train". This gives the picture of Mr. Brown
going to the public no matter what farce was. He will come up again. Sir Media lift and drop people. Here I state that I predict the good news. He seems to know what he is doing. The best part is the mud sling to Mr. Blaire is one step up for Mr. Brown. This is a Big Step. If he takes this one and carries on honestly and withdraws the troops that are already fatigues and the battle of Iraq seems to end no where near, Mr. Brown will make.
I think your negativity surely is a discouragement sir.

Firozali A.Mulla MBA PhD, Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania

In the US, there are more law school graduates than jobs for them. Many end up being television reporters, or in other non-legal jobs. A legal education is a great discipline for later life. I'd say doctors in the US are more miserable than most lawyers. It depends on the kind of law: tort lawyers are generally gregarious, gossipy, worriers; business lawyers are stuffy, etc. Some hate taking depositions. There's an old joke in the US: The reason the courts all close down at 4:30 PM is because the bars all open at 5 PM. (That's drinking bars!)

Tony Francis MD JD , Wichita, KS/USA

A few tips for greater fulfillment:
1. Stop putting money before health & happiness
2. Start using those wonderful brains to really help the world
3. Slow down your lives - the tortoise always wins ultimately

Jez, Ryde,

It seems that most of the people bemoaning the law from outside the UK jurisdiction.

To anyone entering the Law. I would make this suggestion, make sure you are happy initially with a longer hours, and that you can offer something to a smaller employer on the high street or in a smaller firm. You can then get a well rounded properly mentored training and then the world is your oyster.

Contrary to what they say about Accountancy, Law is far more versatile and can be used in local authority, central government or the profession if one chooses. After you get a very good basic thorough high street training, and with five years and your belt you can choose what you wish to do, whether to run your own small firm or whether to start dictating your terms. In a slightly larger firm. If you train in the city however, you may burn out. Or you may remain in the city, hating your employment.

Pete Balchin, Solicitor, Bristol, uk

Robin, yes, I am quite pleased with myself. I live a charmed life. But I am not spouting "partner speech." I am the attorney I am today because I rejected the partnership track. Let's face it, the legal "paper chase" is a cruel and grim joke. Anyone who buys into law firm culture and becomes a slave to their employer is an idiot.

The point I tried to make is that the practice of law need not be a mind-numbing and soul-draining experience. It can be a door opening into a very bright and pleasant future - if you have the intelligence and drive to open that door.

Paul Nicholas Boylan, Sacramento, California

As a lawyer, I would agree with most of what is written, EXCEPT for the people that seem to suggest that lawyers are some sort of social parasite who you wouldn't entrust with a tin of baked beans. The industry governs itself well, unlike some professions (and I use that word in its loosest possible sense) such as, I don't know, estate agents.

They are the crooks and dandy highwaymen of today's society who go about their daily routines without so much as a facade of regulation. An ombudsmen you can 'opt out' of.' The mind boggles.

Daniel, London,

I went to university to study law fully under the misaprehension that I would be "fighting injustice", as you so correctly point out many people do. I loved so many things that the English legal system traditionally stood for...How I have ended up, 7 years later, working at one of the world's biggest law firms, working for multinational companies, drafting seemingly meaningless agreements to cover their backs, I do not know; many of us from my university were "poached" by big firms at marketing events (offering free wine and canapes) before we had really considered future choices. But I can tell you one thing - it is so hard to leave. I am not sure whether this is because colleagues make leaving seem like a cop out, whether one becomes accustomed to the money, or whether people become concerned that "the grass if always greener", but I do know that it would be great if there were more resources to find out about options after leaving the profession.

Hannah F, London, UK

Most lawyers don't work in big, nasty law firms. Most lawyers are not going crazy and thinking of quitting the profession. Connection? I wonder.

The money at the big firms looks good to recent grads, but most people quit within the first few years. There are lots of different niches in the profession, and most are more reasonable.

M.C., Washington DC,

I agree that the profession has its faults and the report does encapsulate the opinion of some practitioners, however as a lawyer, I take issue with many of comments in this forum. I agree with Oonagh that there are many in the profession who are not miserable, and speaking for myself, although demanding and challenging (which is actually part of the appeal), I derive much satisfaction from my work. I realise that we form an indispensable part of the economy and am aware of the wider framework, within which we operate, in contrast to the majority of the comments here, which are uninformed, poorly thought out, bigoted and downright bitter. Those that posted them would make very poor lawyers indeed!

Frank, London,

As a lawyer working in family law mainly on legal aid I can assure you that the vast majority of us do not earn Â£1000 per hour. The hourly rate paid by the Government is about 5% of that. Out of 100,000 lawyers in the UK only a relative handful of private client commercial lawyers achieve four figures per hour. But why let the inconvenient facts get in the way of a good lawyer bashing article?

ian wheaton, southampton, UK

Most of the comments here are ridiculous and ill-informed. Someone who hasn't actually worked in this profession really cannot understand what this article is getting at.

KR, NY, NY

First, many thanks to Bill Adams, Ted Keating (no relation to Paul presumably given his comment about politicians?), Tom, Wilfred Knight, Gene et. al. for validating Sathnam's point about the vortex of hatred. We lawyers can be a bit lacking in empathy so it's gratifying to know that there are others out there even worse than ourselves. By the way, I'm very curious as to the despicable things we're supposed to be doing in-between drafting documents and negotiating agreements - answers on the back of a postcard?

On the conservative assumption that the average city lawyer bills 1600 hours each year and bills about 85% of his or her time in the office, then without making partner, on current pay most will earn, pre-tax, around Â£20/hour as a trainee rising to Â£60-Â£80/hour as a senior associate. Not bad but not totally out of kilter either - and, in response to Nick W's interesting point, about as high as average pay gets if you would rather work with words than numbers.

Peter, London, UK

I find the most startling thing about all of this is the fact that 75% of lawyers do not want to leave their profession! I was one of the 25% that hated it and I got out - I am a little bored of the whining of those left behind. Resign. It is not hard and it is the best thing you will ever do!

Emma, London,

This is a great article. ANd he's right, it's not just dry, there is a real emotiional hate and tiredness woven into the whole lawyer "experience". It's an ego busting experience that brings out the worst in almost everyone. That image of attractive people making clever arguments in oak panelled rooms, brilliant!

kevin molloy, liverpool,

Sadly Sathnam starts with a strange premise all lawyers are city lawyers, yet city lawyers make up only maybe 5% of lawyers in the UK. Most are actually criminal or divorce lawyers which are far murkier and even worse.

Further according to official HM Govt statistics of annual pay, lawyers are in fact only about the 10th best paid occupation in this country.

Given all the fibs lawyers say each day just to get thru the day (ie all the silly implausible stories they make up), it is easy to see that the worst aspect of law is the morality issue which often leads to lawyers forgetting when they are off work at home and all the fictions they continue to make up in their personal lives.

Any person mulling of going into law should read the official govt statistics on pay before they fall for this lie put out by the law firms to attract dumb innocent graduates.

The best paid- and much more positive- profession is in fact Accountancy where most FTSE 500 CEOs/MD and all FDs train

Nick W, Mayfair London, UK

Paul Nicholas you sound very pleased with yourself.

Classic partner speech in order to get the employees to do boring work so that you can reach you billing and cash collection targets!

robin, london,

This article presupposes that all 'lawyers' work in blue chip firms and are freshfields corporate fodder. Its not true. I'm a junior criminal barrister and we don't make anything near Â£1,000 an hour or could ever in our wildest dreams expect to. The difference with us is that we chose to follow the road less traveled and pursue those law school dreams and LA Law fantasies. Thus and so we do get to wear the fancy dress and we do get to argue cases for the meek and disadvantaged in oak panelled court rooms. The talent my dear reader is in the choice. Those corporate scoundrels chose that field for the short end money. I have no doubt about it. I have one of the sexiest jobs in English law and although as criminal barristers we don't make a killing, we do live the dream. That is what sustains us and that is why we endure.

The Dashing Mr. Versani, Wembley,

How can Law firms charge Â£1000 per hour? Well it seems there is a lack of competition. What productive purpose do Lawyers do? Do they add the productivty of the UK economy to deserve those rates of pay?

The Legal industry has become self serving and what it requires is more foreign competiton from India which will lessen the burden on the overworked lawyers.

A Kanter, London,

If people who enter law as a profession find the work boring and the practice difficult, then they were probably boring, difficult people before entering the profession. Law is like any other job - it pays the bills. But unlike other jobs, practicing law provides opportunities to shape your world to better suit you, if you have the vision and drive to do it.

As a new lawyer, I worked long hours and did boring, grunt work, but I also found or created opportunities to do other, much more interesting - and much more difficult - work. Now I have an international practice, am a recognized expert in negotiations, work from a home office, make my own hours and do basically what I want to do when I want to do it. And I owe it all to the study and practice of law.

Those who were not called to this great profession and/or do not have the internal fortitude, drive and imagination to use the law to foster a truly satisfying life are welcomed to leave. Make room for those who do.

Paul Nicholas Boylan, Sacramento, California

You forgot the corrosive effect of having low ethical standards and a facility to twist words.

TomTom, Leeds, England

Aaah the cynics circle. It's worth pointing out that whlist law is well paid relative to society as a whole it's well paid to tempt people to do the work - it has to be! And the Â£1000/hr "earnings" - nobody "earns" that - though a tiny minority (a couple of dozen) charge that (to clients willing to pay that much) and of course get paid very well indeed. The answer of course if you don't like the hours move away. Fundamentally that analysis is what will undermine the current law firm "pyramid scheme" structure - loads of people working exceptionally hard to make a minority increasingly wealthy, in the hope that they too, one day, will form a part of that minority. That model will not work indefinitely (for those in the industry see the lengthening partnership tracks, the introduction of salaried partnership, extended lock-steps etc etc) and hopefully what comes out of it will be much more sustainable. We'll see!

In-house Dan, London,

My father, who obtained his Law degree when he was 59 years old, was a thoroughly honest lawyer. Additionally, he was excellent as a person, wanted by his customers (and, at some point, even idolatrized by them). During his productive professional life, made much more friends that he had expected. In his burial (when he was 73), around sixty per cent of the people who attended it (around 600!) were former customers /friends. And he made a good living, even without charging a magre one hundred dollars per case, not per hour.

Dr. Jaime E. Contreras, Puebla, Mexico

I left the profession 8 years ago thank god. I had a degree in Law, a degree in Economics and a Masters in Law from Russell Group Universities. I was a qualified solicitor in 2 jurisdictions. But I learnt to hate the profession. I worked ridiculous hours with people I did not trust - my personal life dissolved while I was expected to relish a daily round of abuse and pettiness from clients & colleagues.

It is a soul destroying existence. I left for another career where my knowledge of the law (as distinct from the 'practice' of law) is put to good use, I go home by 7.30pm and I trust the people I work with. My salary is lower but I like my job.

Some words for others - Â£1,000 per hr does NOT go into your pocket. That goes to the firm. You get paid a lot less - but that is for a 70 hr week (not including travelling). As for doctors - how many work 48 hrs at a stretch? No breaks. Yes completion meetings can run that long - you grab an hr or so sleep on a table.

H, London,

Hate the game, not the playa, you lay chumps.

SuperChris, Epsom, UK

May I just point out that unless one becomes an equity partner, the lawyers are not earning 1,000 pounds an hour for themselves. The firm alone benefits from the exorbitant billing rate the lawyers are charging unless the pay commensurates with the billing rate (which does not in most of the cases). I can't help thinking what the point is for the enslavement.

CJ, Hong Kong,

My Mother is a Lawyer, I studied Law and due to her insight I chose not become a Lawyer. She offers council and therapy to people in the legal industry. The numbers affected are horiffic, this is not a case of 'poor little rich boys', the situation impacts on the family as well.

Guy, Paris,

While I generally agree with the tone of your article and there are many truths in it. I'd just like to point to one comment:

"Looking back over this list, I realise little of it is going to elicit much sympathy. Somehow, I canâ€™t see the Red Cross diverting resources away from Darfur to come to the rescue of professionals earning Â£1,000 an hour."

It does not follow that though a lawyer's charge out rate may be "almost 1,000 pounds per hour" (cf para 1 of article), that the lawyer is earning 1,000 pounds per hour.

If only we kept our entire charge out rate, we'd actually be a much happier profession!

Davyd Wong, Sydney, Australia

1000 pounds an hour? What you don't mention is that while some lawyers may charge the client that, they usually receive considerably less themselves. From my experience, graduates get about 15% of what they are expected to bill, and this only rises slowly as you work up the chain. In the large firm structure a lot of what people earn goes to the firm's pocket first. And this could make lawyers even more miserable. Oh dear.

James , Sydney,

Heard the one about the difference between a rooster and a lawyer? The rooster clucks defiance.

John Dempster, London,

When James Oglethorpe established the city of Savannah, Georgia he decreed that lawyers were not allowed. I believe none were ever let in until after he had returned to England. Alas this policy is not in force today.

Robert Meyer, Savannah, Georgia

Time is money.Most lawyers, not just those in the City are obsessed by the need to maximise the return on each unit of time spent on a file.Indeed the private practise of law attracts todays graduates almost wholly due to the financial rewards on offer.Few now join in order to ensure that the poor, minorities and the disabled are helped to deal with the complexities of our legal system whilst not enough high calibre candidates want to face the badly paid grind of defending those falling foul of the criminal law or the wrong end of family disputes.
A successful legal practitioner is now expected to deliver on fees according to targets that brook no failures beyond a limited probationary period.It is hardly surprising that some fall by the wayside whilst even those who succeed are miserable as it dawns upon them that their one-dimensional working lives are hardly what they expected when first entering the profession.

BILL JACKSON, Nottingham, UK

This is all a bit overwrought isn't it?

Bill - What are the despicable things that lawyers do exactly (other than the cliches that are incorrect)? This article references City solicitors in the main - they draft documents to allow business deals go through, it's all fairly free of despicableness.

Wilfred - I think the article is meant to be fairly tongue-in-cheek, yes some lawyers dislike their jobs, but it is all self-inflicted, they can't complain much. And as for doctors, no one is belittling their contribution to society, but consider the differences please: a) they are in a vocational profession, b) they are one of the best paid public servants in the country, and c) they complain more (in my opinion) then any other profession - just listen to the BMA on any one day

I'm not that surprised that 1/4 of lawyers want to quit, I'm just surprised that 3/4 want to stay.

CKN, London,

There's no need to feel sorry for those charging Â£1,000 per hour, but the hierarchy of careers in this country is extraordinarily unhealthy. More and more our brightest young people feel that success means going into these pressurised City professions to do jobs which will degrade their character and do little or less than nothing for society. So much talent is wasted that should be used in more worthwhile ways.

Oliver Chettle, Bedford,

The world would be so much better without them

Gene, Sydney,

How correct you are! As a lawyer from the US working for a city firm, I echo all of your points (especially 1 & 6). We're all self-loathing pessimists; however, 1,000 pounds an hour ... maybe I'll move to the UK. :)

Daniel Faroll, St. Louis, USA

Sathnam:
my British parents taught me not to whinge, & not to wallow in self-pity. It's called responsibility .
Get on your bike.
Consider the less fortunate. Consider your Doctors. Government serfs. Press-ganged into socialist servitude. With a disrespectful & ignorant British public, they cannot charge 1000 pounds an hour to escape their socialist prison.
As even the grossly incompetent Jimmy Carter reminded us - " life....is not fair ".
Sathnam , you bemoan the "yawning mind-numbing gap between their intelligence and their work "
No-one , but no-one ,is more highly educated than a Doctor, yet they deal with simpletons with moronic complaints, expecting miracles every hour.
Sathnam, you're a man. Eat it . Day after dreary day, And put it away. Plan your escape hatch.
Remember , living well is the best revenge.

wilfred knight, orange county, usa / california

Are you crazy? Practising law is pure, unadulterated pleasure - what other profession (apart from medicine) can one gain such an enormous sense of wellbeing from observing the misfortune of others at close quarters? Getting paid for it is almost (not quite) superfluous.

And unlike medicine, one neither has to work for the state nor actually have to touch one's clientele in their important little places.

What's more I know that my wife appreciates a good argument with someone who does it for a living - much more satisfying surely than having a domestic with an amateur? She also benefits from knowing that she can leave running my life to my secretary since her ability to run me ragged is far superior to her own.

Yes, it's a lawyer's life for me - billing hours for breakfast, lunch and supper. Never has photocopying other people's dirty laundry been so much fun.

Tom, Bournemouth, UK

The most fundamental reason that so many lawyers are unhappy is that there are too many lawyers in that 47% who drifted into the profession for no particular reason, other than its a well paid, white collar, middle class job, a good one for someone with a 'non-vocational' degree, rather than say science/engineering/law - you will find similarly unhappy people in accounting.

It is this group that ultimately tend to drive certain aspects of the big-law culture. Often employed to do mechanical rote legal processes, but one at which so much is at stake that only very intelligent people are trusted to do it, they are bored and miserable, and do make others the same.

If you want to find happy satisfied lawyers, look for the genuine specialists in their field (not the lawyers who advertise a 'hot' specialty after a quick conversion course) such as Intellectual Property, labour/employment law, international law, arbitration -- they are the ones who find the subject genuinely interesting.

Colm MacKernan, London/Washington,

Just think, if we all follow Jesus, we wont be needing lawyers. Very few of them have any morals, they just earn a living out of other people's misery and misfortune. Imagine defending people who have commited despicable crimes and knowing full well that they are guilty but trying to convince the judge and jury otherwise. No wonder they are despised.

virginia, Brisbane, Australia

Oh come on, the amazing statistic from this survey is not that one quarter of lawyers want to leave the profession, but that three quarters of lawyers enjoy it. So three quarters of lawyers presumably do NOT despise each other, despise themselves, etc etc.

Oonagh, Hong Kong,

Absolutely no sympathy... you neglected to mention that lawyers attempt to bully and threaten their way through all relationships, inside and outside of the legal processes.

Also, a high percentage of politicians (in Australia) have legal degrees - need I say more!

Ted Keating, Gold Coast, Australia

My heart bleeds for these poor souls, it really does.
The politicians dream up new laws every day which these legal guy's have to interpret and apply.
Would it not do everyone a favor if millions of stupid laws were repealed and people were prevented from bringing forward petty and absurd cases such as the judge in the USA who wanted to take a Korean couple for millions because they had lost a pair of trousers he had sent for cleaning.
Also all these other petty claims for millions which should be thrown out at the start.
When will common sense start to prevail?

Leonard, Tongyeong, South Korea

Boo hoo! Sad little lawyers. Working hard and earning soooooooooo much money in a system they designed to benefit themselves. Any one can stop being despised - all they need to do is stop doing despicable things.

Bill Adams, New Delhi, India