There's nothing like calls to trim lawyer numbers to trigger howls of outrage or agreement. The most recent example was a piece carried by Legal Week based on a report by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which argued that the profession is carrying thousands of excess jobs given the bleak commercial environment.

Personally, I thought the case RBS' report made was only halfway there. It's obvious that the global economy is uncertain and vulnerable to shocks and that domestic demand is likely to be subdued for the next few years.

Does this threaten the entire profession? – Well, I agree with RBS' veteran banker James Tsolakis that the pressure is far more intense for small and medium-sized firms, which also have to contend with the impact of new entrants under the Legal Services Act. But even if the Tesco Law revolution lives up to hype, it will take several years to have a material impact on the high street.

You also can't get away from the fact that subdued growth in the legal services market is still growth. So far, the more extreme predictions of a wipe-out in law firm land have been overblown. Partly, that is because UK firms went through a substantial reset of their cost base in 2009 via job cuts, an effective cut on associate pay and partnership restructurings. Law firm costs in real terms are considerably below where they were four years ago.

(An interesting comparison point is the US, where there have been less deep cuts to associate comp which, combined with the lack of a lower-paid vocational training stage, has left clients rebelling at high charge-out rates for inexperienced lawyers).

What I'd argue is happening now is less about over-capacity and structurally-depressed demand and more the realities of a less forgiving market. In the easy growth years, even bottom quartile law firms could usually rub along fine and make a good living. Weak partnerships or poor management, no matter – there was a big margin for error. Since the 2009 recession the weakest group of firms has increasingly struggled to fend for themselves. But differing views on how the market will play are not the reason that calls to cut the number of lawyers are so controversial.

It is because, as much as it has become a business, law still exists as a vocation in which aspiring lawyers invest their dreams and a good chunk of time and money trying to break into. To hear calls for those already in the profession to start pulling up the ladder when sizeable parts of the commercial profession still maintain very respectable profitability is going to sting.

What has been lacking in recent years has been a debate about where expectations on profit can reasonably be set. Law has to be profitable, but the right answer for the profession won't always be to get PEP up.

For more, see RBS: legal profession carrying thousands of excess solicitor jobs.

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