The capital is a hub for the legal profession, with Central London alone home to 1,020 QC’s, 7591 barristers and over 33,000 solicitors. Last year the top 100 City law firms employed 46,000 lawyers, generating £12.25 billion in revenues and £4.2 billion in profit.

Legal professionals are a notoriously hard-working and equally high-earning demographic with solicitor salaries at partner level in excess of £100k and many senior barristers and QCs earning in excess of £1m per annum. Readers of The Bench Mark are at the top of their respective fields and in most cases, will be in the highest-earning bracket of their profession. Our demographic is made up of 63% male, 37% female, with an average age of 43. Whilst other professions suffer in the credit crisis lawyers are never short of work – hard times bring litigation; good times bring acquisition. The legal professionals are the overall winners.