Meeting the UK's diverse legal needs is becoming tougher for lawyers

There is no denying that the practice of law is, by and large, a prosperous vocation for those willing to pay obscene tuition fees and work arduous hours to reach the zenith of the legal profession.

A study published in The Telegraph in April proclaimed that the average law graduate could expect to earn £54,000 a year - double the national average wage - upon completion of their training, and that most would see their pay increase by £25,000 every five years. Lawyers with between five and ten years PQE were expected to earn £76,000 per annum, while those practising for over 15 years could command £181,000.

While such studies are clearly skewed in favour of those inside the largest firms, they are worth noting. For example, news emerged this week that the total earnings of barristers rose to a staggering £1.5bn in the last recorded year, yet not all barristers will have felt a rise in their average annual income to the lofty £118,000 reported in The Times.

As the economy continues to recover, a gaping chasm has appeared between the earnings of the corporate specialists and those making a meagre crust from legal aid. Though the City elite can easily command the headline figures above, a criminal practitioner at the coalface of the justice system is likely to have to survive on less than £25,000 a year.

Obviously not all lawyers are created equal, or are remunerated in line with the importance of their work. But as impressive as some big salaries are, there is always room for improvement and more money to be made, as the latest report from the Legal Services Board shows.

The now bi-annual study into the unmet legal needs of small businesses (SMEs) found there are big opportunities for the profession. The number of legal problems faced by companies was found to have declined over the last two years. Those issues that remain, though, cost businesses an estimated £9.79bn each year, while one in five company owners said legal worries had contributed to problems with their health.

Engagement with lawyers was found to be limited, however, with fewer than one in ten businesses either employing an in-house legal adviser or retaining a law firm. Also of concern was the discovery that, when advice was sought, accountants were consulted more often than solicitors or barristers.

Of greater significance, however, were the findings that only 13 per cent of SMEs saw lawyers as cost effective, and that almost half of respondents would only use a legal adviser as a last resort in solving a business problem. As the government's court fee hike begins to bite, it is a safe wager that this percentage will only increase as SMEs struggle to see the worth in spending thousands of pounds just to bring an action, let alone see it through to fruition.

As lawyers look to celebrate national pro bono week, it is worth considering those members of the public who are now unable to access justice, as well as how the government's solution to this crisis is to impose a 1 per cent levy on the turnover of the Top 100 firms.

Considering the above, the profession has a host of challenges ahead, which in the current political climate, even a team of superheroes might struggle with. It must change pre-existing attitudes from wary potential clients, leverage the unmet legal needs of the nation's five million businesses, and provide legal counsel for those who can no longer afford it. Whoever said being a lawyer was easy?

John van der Luit-Drummond is deputy editor for Solicitors Journal

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