Redundancy - a scary prospect

Nice legs, but not sure high salary expectations are justified by the size of mortgages etc. Surely salaries should be based on capability/marketability etc?

JB -17 Jun 2009 | 01:00

Great picture selection.

playftseforme -17 Jun 2009 | 01:00

Surely mortgages should be based on the size of the salary not the other way round!

Anonymous -17 Jun 2009 | 01:00

My partner is a lawyer who has so far escaped the threat of redundancy and he showed me this article.

There is almost a sense of 'the world owed me a living due to the fact that I am a lawyer' attitude to the piece - particularly with the view that lifestyle costs such as mortgages etc are inflexible - how wrong can you be?

These are flexible and like many other professions from architects to accountants, people are being faced with the reality that total changes in lifestyle may need to be paid - there are some truly good lawyers, I have met but conversely there are some who just got the job due to the need to put bodies in chairs.

You get paid what the market demands, and at the moment there are too many lawyers in private practice.

The streamlining of the legal sector will be for the good of all - those left will truly be the talented and worth the money they get paid.

Me - well I'm a GP - so my partner really doesn't have to worry - well apart from the swine flu I might pick up in the coming months - well that's if my insurance allows me to do that.

annon -17 Jun 2009 | 01:00

School fees, mortgages and "other living expenses" are inflexible? The world doesn't owe you a big house, a private education for your kids and a 4x4. As you will find out over the next few years as the lawyers are picked off one by one.

playfootsieforme -17 Jun 2009 | 01:00

How about taking the kids out of private school, moving out of the four bedroom Pimlico town house and getting real. The world will only benefit from having a few less materialistic ambulance-chasers.

Jim -17 Jun 2009 | 01:00

It is only a "scary prospect" if you are closed to the opportunities that redundancy can bring. In 2003, I left a successful 15 year career in private practice to establish a law management consultancy, and have never looked back.

Admittedly it was by choice rather than as a consequence of redundancy, although initially I was not without self doubt and a crisis of confidence. I consider myself to be working from the same church, just a different pew! It has been fabulous.

If you are facing redundancy ,now is the perfect time to take stock and re evaluate all aspects of your life not just your career. A professional coach may be able to help you find other career and lifestyle choices that you would find both fulfilling and rewarding.

There are many lawyers who feel stuck in practice because they are shackled to their mortgage and the childrens school fees. Redundancy may be just the lifeline they need.

kimberley -17 Jun 2009 | 01:00

Senior associates, like much of the City, based unsustainable lifestyles upon expectations of a perpetually rising market. So what? Across the economy and across the world the same mistake has been made by individuals and businesses and the repercussions are hitting home - insolvencies, redundancies, pay cuts. The whinging of senior associates and partners who didn't have to try particularly hard to justify their position because they were on a gravy train frankly sound ridiculous both to those outside the profession and many of the less conceited within the profession.

To the extent I have sympathies, they lie with the perfectly able students and trainees who will probably be denied the opportunity to prove themselves, rather than the associates who failed to make the grade, but have enjoyed the years of plenty.

Anonymous -18 Jun 2009 | 01:00

A lecture on market efficiency by an employee of the NHS! Whatever next?!

Adrian -18 Jun 2009 | 01:00

Annon - many of those I know who have been made redundant are indeed talented and very good lawyers but were let go for a plethora of reasons including expense, seniority (where partners felt they could step in and do the work of the senior associates themselves) and, ridiculously enough, whether or not they were a 'maternity payout' liability in coming months. Many of those left behind are non-English law qualified lawyers from former Commonwealth jurisdictions who have been kept on because they 'fit' the nebulous culture and prophetically are more likely to relocate back home in a few years thereby freeing up resources. Anyone who truly believes that redundancy is a fair process based on merit and ability is deluded - it's a popularity game and there are many intelligent, competent lawyers with well rounded business skills who are being forced to fall by the wayside. Bad management, bad financial planning and terrible business sense. The decisions of today will mean we'll have to plunder legal resources in foreign jurisdictions once things pick up again. Surely no way to run a credible profession.

Anon -18 Jun 2009 | 01:00

Annon fear not, I cannot see the Government changing its advice that potential swine flu cases should phone rather than visiting GPs in person, so no risk of that work obligation, nor any risk that a GP should work such hours that City and other lawyers (often male) are actually able to access their GP for stress, anxiety or depression-related symptoms due to redundancy issues, even if they are actually persuaded to do so by their family or friends, so I think your job security salary and scope of work obligations are safe.

Anonymous -18 Jun 2009 | 01:00

The lawyer being persuaded to visit the GP by their family and friends, not the GP being persuaded to work hours which might realistically be open to certain categories of City workers who work well beyond the traditional GP opening hours of 9 to 6, of course...

. -18 Jun 2009 | 01:00