This blog post is going to be all about us poor student solicitors/trainee solicitors/qualified solicitors, so barristers feel free to tune out. Not really, but this post will feature a few barrister-related frustrations. A very good friend of mine (since secondary school) has recently started her pupillage at a local chambers. As you can imagine we are all extremely proud of her. However, out of myself and eight other of the ladies that all regularly still see each other from school, five of us are involved in the legal profession in some way and she has been the only one to pursue the bar. Prior to her getting pupillage and whilst on the BPTC she described the rest of the legal profession as "paper pushers" in trying to explain to the remaining four friends the distinctions between myself as student solicitor, my two paralegal friends and one legal secretary. Oh. Wow. I was so offended. Since then she has diminished the pay of those who are not barristers (apparently she would be starting on £60k) and glamourised the bar whilst simultaneously dulling any other legal career.
For the sake of not wanting to sound bitter and jealous we have all remained silent. But is this view of the different legal professions universal? Last week my mother was on jury service. Upon its conclusion we were sat discussing some of the hilarious things the barristers and judges had been saying (one barrister going into the intimate depths of his "expensive bottle of wine" and the "delicious joint of roast pork" he and his wife enjoyed the previous weekend - don't ask, the link was tenuous at best) when my mother flippantly remarked "oh (daughter) I wish you were going to be a lawyer". My response "I am going to be a lawyer, mum". It left me thinking how society really views solicitors. The new series of Silk started recently and I absolutely love it, but look at the solicitors on there. They are either the purest and most corrupt of evils taking bribes with no moral compass and representing the worst criminals, or they are doe eyed women just happy for the chance to be seduced by a QC. Is this what we have been reduced to? Has anyone ever seen a paralegal or legal assistant featured?
I didn't go into law just to say I'm a lawyer and think that that commanded respect. I know that, like the taxman and politicians, lawyers aren't always held in high regard. But I don't understand the difference in perception between barristers and the rest of the legal world. Anyone in the profession knows that the distinction between solicitors and barristers is fast becoming smaller and smaller. My friend on pupillage text me just the other day saying she had met some solicitor advocates in court and had only just realised that she and I could come up against each other one day. My bill, of course, will be much lower. Although, I have found out her pupillage is at £12k salary so for now at least I am a paper pusher earning much more than a barrister.
