1. Underpaid, small badly decorated offices, that shiny brown wallpaper has been there since 1976;
2. Grumpy secretaries who still can’t really get to grips with the new software (Beryl has been there forty years, she thinks she’s the Senior Partner, even though all she does is type up dictations (she struggled when it shifted from dictaphones to BigHand and do the SP’s filing));
3. Paperless files are a dream away.
4. At the annual local law soc dinners, red faced men who all trained together at one firm reminisce about how they can no longer smack their staff’s bums as they walk past, how they miss liquid lunches, how their golf handicap is now in single figures and who is next in line to be President of said Law Soc. Whoever is will put this “honour” on their profile on their firm’s website…
I think the better option would be being a solicitor who happens to work from home in a small town but actually still works for a meaningful outfit along with all the moolah and support that goes with that
I played golf when I was a teenager. I tried again on holiday a couple of years ago and found, to my surprise, that I can still drive and putt, but can't do any of the in between strokes, at all.
One of my best friends is the town solicitor in a country town in australia. She bought the practice from the 90 year old original solly. It’s a great job, bread and butter is probate and conveyancing with a varied diet of drink driving charges, commercial and family law on top. She’s more a small business owner than a lawyer and she loves it, I love walking down Main Street with her as literally everyone knows her.
Cookie - it does. There are fewer and fewer but there’s a couple of firms in my mind that i was referencing in my head whilst writing that. The wallpaper is shiny and real. Plus woodchip wallpaper in the next door office. Grim.
"being a solicitor who happens to work from home in a small town but actually still works for a meaningful outfit along with all the moolah and support that goes with that"
But add part time to the mix. You'd still be taking more home than the equivalent f/t local firm 9-6 er
Tom has hit the nail on the head which is why I do that.
Crypto I work for a London firm which is how I afford to run the pool. Might eventually consider a senior position with a large regional firm if they can match the pay.
5. Looking across the Christmas party table at Beryl and wondering if you are going to be having your annual rummage around each other's underpants. "Pass the red please, Dave. And the whisky."
I went to a local firm to swear something recently. The features listed by Dusty were all there. Paper files lying all over the place and the ancient sol and his secretary/long term fumbling partner discussed confidential client stuff while I sat there. The screen background on the computer was that green hill from Windows XP. I was pleasantly surprised that they could scan the signed doc back to me.
There are a small cabal of equity partners who do okay. Disclosed PEP a few years ago was 270k so the top few will be taking home 500k+.
They all leave at 5 or 6.
It is not rock star money, but enough to live pretty well in a provincial town. Also the key is the longevity. They can easily be a partner for 30+ years.
Point is I work in firm in London that pays London rates and to be fair some of the stuff I do I charge much the same fees as I charged for similar sized commercial deals back before I reduced my stress levels. If anything high end resi buyers are more willing to pay as they do a few deals a lifetime rather than a few a month.
I reckon being a partner in a long established say five partner practice in a provincial firm is a great gig .
pretty much un-sackable representing the same HNW individuals and local companies for generations . Little bureaucracy or committees , and a 40 hour week. Not sure being a sole practitioner operating from a couple of rooms above a kebab shop in Willesden is the same …
does a firm like say Russell Cooke count as a provincial firm ? My fathers best mate is senior equity their and he loves it , having come from “city law” good interesting meaningful work , home by 6 , does the school run etc , and probably on circa 400k at least . What’s not to like ?
I think it depends on your priorities, personality type and what you are willing to sacrifice. Ultimately if your job makes you (relatively) happy, pays you enough that you haven’t got to panic each month, allows you some work/life balance, then what exactly do you need? For most people that’s enough.
But provincial red faced golfists can get to feck (and only because I’ve been on the receiving end of their misogyny and gammony bullshit in the past and basically group them together in my head as “a type”, so there we go).
I've found them less chippy in recent years. Certainly 15 years ago I dealt with people in the provinces who'd make points purely to prove how brilliant they were and how they could have gone into the City if they'd wanted to. Seem to remember one or two even needing to tell me where they'd been to university to make a point. They sounded disappointed when my response was "fascinating but can we get on with the matter in hand as I'd like to go home at a sensible time this evening".
Sole practitioners are thin on the ground as they can't get onto mortgage lender panels any more but plenty of small firms with a handful of partners still out there.
Often walk past this firm and there's Savita in her office at the back and then the front of the shop is full of young paralegals. She's been going as long as I can remember and according to her website started up a couple of years before I moved to Balham. http://www.sjssolicitors.co.uk/
Reminds of a police officer who asked my friend Dave if he worked behind the counter in a branch after he said he worked for Barclays. She looked a bit surprised when he replied "Christ no corporate banking at Canary Wharf".
Sails , strange job that being a bank cashier. It must be the most boring job in the world . I don’t get why people want to do it . The cashier at my local nationwide recently retired after 30 years working in the same branch.just wow .
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I suspect it was in the 70s. Not sure about now.
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Can you play golf? If not it's not for you
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1. Underpaid, small badly decorated offices, that shiny brown wallpaper has been there since 1976;
2. Grumpy secretaries who still can’t really get to grips with the new software (Beryl has been there forty years, she thinks she’s the Senior Partner, even though all she does is type up dictations (she struggled when it shifted from dictaphones to BigHand and do the SP’s filing));
3. Paperless files are a dream away.
4. At the annual local law soc dinners, red faced men who all trained together at one firm reminisce about how they can no longer smack their staff’s bums as they walk past, how they miss liquid lunches, how their golf handicap is now in single figures and who is next in line to be President of said Law Soc. Whoever is will put this “honour” on their profile on their firm’s website…
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"she struggled when it shifted from dictaphones to BigHand"
Heh having actual flashbacks
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Just move to Dubai.
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I think it is now genuinely one of the worst desk based jobs out there to be honest.
Stressful job for not much money and with the internet all your clients will now be 'legal experts' as well.
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I think the better option would be being a solicitor who happens to work from home in a small town but actually still works for a meaningful outfit along with all the moolah and support that goes with that
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Agree about Dubai. Might even be a good place to retire.
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Always thought that South Coast conveyancing job was the ultimate destination
With divorcing only for hotties
Assuming you've made your pile obv
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Always thought that South Coast conveyancing job was the ultimate destination
Only if you have your own swimming pool.
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I played golf when I was a teenager. I tried again on holiday a couple of years ago and found, to my surprise, that I can still drive and putt, but can't do any of the in between strokes, at all.
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Heh @ stardust, suspect there's a lot in that tbh
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Dusty nails it
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Do places like that still exist, outside of an episode of Kingdom?
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One of my best friends is the town solicitor in a country town in australia. She bought the practice from the 90 year old original solly. It’s a great job, bread and butter is probate and conveyancing with a varied diet of drink driving charges, commercial and family law on top. She’s more a small business owner than a lawyer and she loves it, I love walking down Main Street with her as literally everyone knows her.
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heh @ dusty's
Grim reading. Not as much a quaint option as one imagines
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The only thing worse than being a City solicitor is being a small town solicitor HTH
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Cookie - it does. There are fewer and fewer but there’s a couple of firms in my mind that i was referencing in my head whilst writing that. The wallpaper is shiny and real. Plus woodchip wallpaper in the next door office. Grim.
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This is the best option:
"being a solicitor who happens to work from home in a small town but actually still works for a meaningful outfit along with all the moolah and support that goes with that"
But add part time to the mix. You'd still be taking more home than the equivalent f/t local firm 9-6 er
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In my old firm I have a decommissioned aga in a massive fireplace in my (sole use) office, and french windows to the garden.
that was the only good bit about working there tbh
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Tom has hit the nail on the head which is why I do that.
Crypto I work for a London firm which is how I afford to run the pool. Might eventually consider a senior position with a large regional firm if they can match the pay.
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5. Looking across the Christmas party table at Beryl and wondering if you are going to be having your annual rummage around each other's underpants. "Pass the red please, Dave. And the whisky."
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Unbecoming a small toon solicitor
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Perfectly encapsulates it.
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I think we now have enough to feed a bingo sheet creator.
Laz job bingo for Q4/2021 anyone?
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I went to a local firm to swear something recently. The features listed by Dusty were all there. Paper files lying all over the place and the ancient sol and his secretary/long term fumbling partner discussed confidential client stuff while I sat there. The screen background on the computer was that green hill from Windows XP. I was pleasantly surprised that they could scan the signed doc back to me.
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It does seem likely to be the domain of the bloviatory and bumptious middle aged male, but if you’re me that’s not really a deterrent.
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Long wet lunches, chancing it on the back roads home.
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Their offices were very small
With woodchip on the wall
When I came round to swear a stat dec
They never noticed me at all.
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Heh
Let’s all meet up in the year 1900
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There is a firm I know where my parents lived.
There are a small cabal of equity partners who do okay. Disclosed PEP a few years ago was 270k so the top few will be taking home 500k+.
They all leave at 5 or 6.
It is not rock star money, but enough to live pretty well in a provincial town. Also the key is the longevity. They can easily be a partner for 30+ years.
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Erm that’s an absolute fortune by most people’s standards and certainly in terms of small town lawyers ffs.
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Given the state of the music industry that is also considerably more than rock star money as well…
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You seem to feel that keenly, Foal
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Showing my age with the rock star comment. Point taken.
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l am not sure resi conveyancing could ever being considered to be city law.
ambulance chasing in coventry is also law in a city, but city law it aint.
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Point is I work in firm in London that pays London rates and to be fair some of the stuff I do I charge much the same fees as I charged for similar sized commercial deals back before I reduced my stress levels. If anything high end resi buyers are more willing to pay as they do a few deals a lifetime rather than a few a month.
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LOL
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Which was the sandpit tit on here recently whose Reddit was outed? People who lie about money are beyond sad.
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I reckon being a partner in a long established say five partner practice in a provincial firm is a great gig .
pretty much un-sackable representing the same HNW individuals and local companies for generations . Little bureaucracy or committees , and a 40 hour week. Not sure being a sole practitioner operating from a couple of rooms above a kebab shop in Willesden is the same …
does a firm like say Russell Cooke count as a provincial firm ? My fathers best mate is senior equity their and he loves it , having come from “city law” good interesting meaningful work , home by 6 , does the school run etc , and probably on circa 400k at least . What’s not to like ?
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I think it depends on your priorities, personality type and what you are willing to sacrifice. Ultimately if your job makes you (relatively) happy, pays you enough that you haven’t got to panic each month, allows you some work/life balance, then what exactly do you need? For most people that’s enough.
But provincial red faced golfists can get to feck (and only because I’ve been on the receiving end of their misogyny and gammony bullshit in the past and basically group them together in my head as “a type”, so there we go).
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I've found them less chippy in recent years. Certainly 15 years ago I dealt with people in the provinces who'd make points purely to prove how brilliant they were and how they could have gone into the City if they'd wanted to. Seem to remember one or two even needing to tell me where they'd been to university to make a point. They sounded disappointed when my response was "fascinating but can we get on with the matter in hand as I'd like to go home at a sensible time this evening".
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Are there actually that many 1 or 2 man practices about anymore, most seem to get shut down by the SRA or go bust .
as I say I reckon it’s a great gig being a partner in a longstanding provincial practice.
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Sole practitioners are thin on the ground as they can't get onto mortgage lender panels any more but plenty of small firms with a handful of partners still out there.
Often walk past this firm and there's Savita in her office at the back and then the front of the shop is full of young paralegals. She's been going as long as I can remember and according to her website started up a couple of years before I moved to Balham. http://www.sjssolicitors.co.uk/
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Sails, from that website, for each para: "She hopes to commence her training contract with SJS in the near future."
Dangling the carrot
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‘My fathers best mate is senior equity their and he loves it , having come from “city law” good interesting meaningful work‘
This sentence has given me a headache
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That's some quality branding there.
We're a new firm and need some instant gravitas to show history and implied dependability. I know, use an Old English font for the word "Solicitors"
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That font makes me think of 1980s steak houses. All dark wood and mock Tudor bollocks
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City law and city lawyer are such vvank terms
A mate of mine joined an MC firm post uni and he would introduce himself as a "city lawyer" in parties etc
Sigh
I had to kill him
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Reminds of a police officer who asked my friend Dave if he worked behind the counter in a branch after he said he worked for Barclays. She looked a bit surprised when he replied "Christ no corporate banking at Canary Wharf".
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Sails , strange job that being a bank cashier. It must be the most boring job in the world . I don’t get why people want to do it . The cashier at my local nationwide recently retired after 30 years working in the same branch.just wow .
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I tried that job as a teenager. I quit after a month. I was dead bored after a week
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