Veteran lawyers are always complaining that the profession is going to the dogs. But never have I heard these concerns articulated so strongly – and publicly – as by Lord Andrew Phillips of Sudbury last week.
“This great profession of ours is in crisis,” began the House of Lords life peer, who is also a partner at Bates Wells & Braithwaite, speaking at the annual graduation ceremony for chartered legal executives.
Phillips then went on to lament the eroding of eccentricity in law: “When I entered the legal profession 53 years ago it was a harbinger of eccentrics,” he recalled, before telling a story about a partner who used to summon his secretary by firing an 18th Century pistol...