Duty Calls - why Criminal Lawyers are the legal system's Super Heroes

In July 2013 we interviewed Franklin Sinclair, Senior Partner with Tuckers Solicitors one of the country's largest Criminal Law firms. Franklin's advice to ambitious lawyers at the start of their careers was to "keep away from legal aid if you want to have any kind of successful career financially but if you don't care about money or status then being a criminal lawyer is so rewarding and never dull".

According to research we have carried out that advice still resonates. 

• Criminal Lawyers are working a top ranked 57 extra contractual days a year, coming home 6 days later than Litigation and ADR Lawyers who are 2nd in the table on 51 days 
• 62% of Criminal Lawyers felt they were being underpaid, also top spot
• Criminal Law was the only practice area in which nobody at all thought they were being paid above market rate 
• Average salaries hovered around the £32k mark in most regions but only 9% of legal professionals working in Criminal practice were paid a bonus compared to 26% across all respondents.

So you would expect that Criminal Lawyers would be beating a path to the door? Well, no. 

• BOOM 53% of Criminal Lawyers stated that they were satisfied or very satisfied in their job, just a touch under the 56% registered across all respondents
• WHACK Criminal Lawyers are only a couple of percentage points more likely than all respondents to change jobs in the next 6 months. 

It takes super powers to stay strong in the face of adversity and it looks like Criminal Lawyers are now seeing some reward for their perseverance. Criminal Lawyers have wrestled back some work life balance and despite putting in an extra 9.5 hours a week they are actually working 15 less extra contractual days than last year. However please do not get the impression that Criminal is getting fluffy in any way. For many reasons it remains a calling and not for the faint hearted in any way. But that's another story and if you don’t believe us then talk to Franklin, if he's got the time.

We carried out the research whilst putting together our 2015 Salary and Benefits Benchmarker which is available for download here.