Asia-Pacific

Check out this week's top Asia-Pacific news on the Asia Pacific Headline page.

Follow RoF

For all the breaking news, follow RoF on Twitter and Facebook

          
   

Discussion

Discussion
The discussion board has the answers to all life's questions. Get advice on how to get a job, where to work, how your salary matches up and where to go after hours.

Find a Job

With the market picking up, don't miss out on Job Search for all the best vacancies from the World's leading law firms.
Syndicate  

Top Stories 2012

Send Us Your News
Exclusive: Ashfords pays staff slave wages
19 October 2012
Rate it
3

RollOnFriday can reveal that Ashfords is offering full time paralegals just £12,500 a year: that's less than two thirds of what its local competitors pay.

The roles are being advertised in Bristol, Exeter and Taunton, and represent £40 in each paralegal's pocket for a day's work. Or in other words, about what an Ashfords partner (average drawings £239,000) would tip the valet to park his Porsche.

It's not clear how the paralegals are expected to survive on so little. As the average rent for a one bed flat in Bristol is around £580 pcm, RollOnFriday numberologists calculate that would leave a paralegal with about £11 a day for everything else.

And the jobs on offer are certainly not for kids straight out of school: the ad states that applicants should have a degree and / or the LPC, and ideally have relevant property experience.

    Ashfords yesterday

It seems clear that Ashfords' offer is way off the mark: Burges Salmon told RollOnFriday that its Bristol paralegals make "above £20,000", and Osborne Clarke said it paid "a starting salary of around £20,000".

The firm declined to comment.


Comments

Feel free to enter your comments on the news story below, subject to our terms and conditions. Please note that comments are subject to moderation and so will not appear immediately.

Please keep it nice. Thanks.
Order By:
anonymous user
19/10/2012 08:09
Rate it
18
Report as offensive
If anyone had any remaining doubts that law in this country has now been totally commoditised, with industrial logic taking over from any ideas of training, education or any effort to achieve even a modicum of parity in earnings among fellow professionals (as opposed to owners take all and workers get nowt), then they can now relax.

This is a race to the bottom in labour relations, (see NI story also), and we have not hit the murky terminus yet. Lawyers of the world unite and fight....or perhaps not...perhaps just join the job queue like everyone else.
anonymous user
19/10/2012 09:03
Rate it
8
Report as offensive
First Group are advertising for bus drivers in Bristol.

Recruits are being tempted with earnings in excess of £18,000 - a second job for needy paralegals?
ProBoner
19/10/2012 10:00
Rate it
8
Report as offensive
Blimey, Ashfords have got some well ancient computers.
anonymous user
19/10/2012 10:42
Rate it
0
Report as offensive
Ashfords appear to have a 'Sheriff of Nottingham' economic policy...

Suppose it keeps the drawings artificially high for the top few, albeit perhaps not a business model that is sustainable.

Crumbling pyramid anyone?
anonymous user
19/10/2012 11:01
Rate it
3
Report as offensive
@10.42am

'not a business model that is sustainable'

I wish you were right, but the reality is that when the big ABS firms get going, eg Co-Op, AA, Saga, BT, to name just a handful of new 'industrial-size' legal players, then pressure on starting salaries for lawyers will be pushed further and further downward.
anonymous user
19/10/2012 11:57
Rate it
4
Report as offensive
Starting salaries will be pushed down - but quality of service will spiral as well. Staff can't be motivated on a long term basis with peanuts instead of carrots. Shame on Ashfords - and may they suffer the consequences of their folly in the fullness of time.
anonymous user
19/10/2012 12:45
Rate it
21
Report as offensive
I used to think that £12,500 was all the money in the world. Now it's a day's pay.

Sincerely Yours

Big Law Partner
anonymous user
19/10/2012 14:00
Rate it
0
Report as offensive
Not bad for the South West - I bet they throw in a few turnips as well. The pay divide is massive solicitors don't get much more. BS ond OC aren't good comparisons!!
anonymous user
19/10/2012 16:23
Rate it
2
Report as offensive
how about the London paralegals being paid national minimum wage? worse situation, I'd say....
anonymous user
19/10/2012 19:26
Rate it
-8
Report as offensive
I got £10,800 when starting there as a paralegal 8 years ago. Modern applicants don't know how lucky they are!
anonymous user
19/10/2012 21:55
Rate it
-1
Report as offensive
I can tell you that everyone there (apart from the equity partners) are paid poorly as well. Unfortunetely the "coup" in August has changed little, apart from partners being told what "strategy" supposedly means!
anonymous user
22/10/2012 14:21
Rate it
3
Report as offensive
Prolegal in LONDON pay £13,000 for Paralegals.
anonymous user
22/10/2012 19:48
Rate it
-1
Report as offensive
Unlike many other firms down here in Devon, they don't offer to pay for training either!
anonymous user
23/10/2012 14:28
Rate it
1
Report as offensive
the thing is that so many law graduates are eager to get a foot in the legal industry that Ashfords will probably inundated with applications.....didn't expect a regional firm with more than one office to be so stingy thpugh!

it doesn't really get much better......just qualified and my NQ salary is £20K. and the min salary for trainees has been abolished. happy days eh?
anonymous user
23/10/2012 20:10
Rate it
-1
Report as offensive
I'd be amazed anyone is surprised at this. This is exactly the amount my firm started paying graduate assistants last year; the other big firm in our town pays exactly the same now. Seems to be becoming the industry standard.
anonymous user
24/10/2012 16:05
Rate it
0
Report as offensive
Every 17-year-old budding lawyer should be shown such statistics, and warned that there is a good chance they might have to stoop so low as to earn less than a dustbin lorry driver for many years after graduation, in addition to having to pay off a staggering debt. I'd rather try and start my own business than prostitute myself to some law firm for such a meagre return.

As for the point about Co-op et al contributing to further decreasing salaries, I'm not so sure. Co-op in Bristol pay paralegals up to £25k a year, so I'm told. Law graduates still prefer working for traditional law firms - but if Co-op continue to pay decent salaries in comparison, more and more will flock to them and private practice will have to eventually pay more, or face asking secretaries to do the work. Oh wait...
anonymous user
30/10/2012 05:55
Rate it
0
Report as offensive
hi there, i wanna know whether 12,000/- UK pounds arr before or after tax