I used to be very dismissive when hearing senior lawyers blame the press for creating an environment in which law firms pursue ever-escalating partner profits. But I'm a little less sure than I used to be.

On one level, it is an exercise in futility and blame-shifting to complain about the media's handling of profits. All businesses have benchmarks for success – a way of ascertaining the share price. And once you move past being a cottage industry, as law did years ago, a market is naturally created for financial information.

It also always struck me as utter hypocrisy when you find partners who greedily lap up reported information about their target clients but want to draw the line at their own firms' workings. And it's true that the single biggest factor in pushing law firms to chase higher profits per equity partner (PEP) has been the 15-year invasion of the Square Mile by more profitable US law firms. One way or another, City firms had to start hiking profitability.