I really am not the only one. Thank God!

A friend of mine who qualified at the same time as me recently told me that they were thinking of leaving the profession. A little digging around found that just under a half of my cohort of solicitors are also thinking the same. I recently sat in a car with a colleague and we discussed the relative merits and demerits of becoming a plasterer as opposed to a carpenter.

At this point, you'll be expecting a moan about legal aid and how the cuts are biting, how we cannot cope with the low pay and the long hours. Moan. Moan. Moan.

However, I didn't speak to a single legal aid solicitor. About 80% work of those chatted to work in the 'commercial' arena - corporate commercial, commercial property and employment (and a number of other variants). The others are family solicitors. None of us are particularly badly paid (although a few noted that a MacDonald's manager gets the same) and none of us are working in battery farms. They are all eloquent, personable, sensible people. And they want to leave.

Why?

The awful changing legal environment was part of it. Tinkering politicians are stiffling businesses more effectively than any free market competitor could ever do.

The removal of any sort of prestige from the job. The form filling. The arse covering. The admin - oh my, the admin, almost all of it pointless. A couple of them said pay, I can't deny. The lack of respect. The pressure and stress. And a sudden realisation that 'there really must be more to life than this'.

When I finished my formal study, one of my compatriots went off to do the two year training contract. He left 2 weeks before the end thus ending his chances of admission. I thought he was mad. I told him so. Actually, amongst a clever bunch, he might actually have been the cleverest (he is currently studying for a PhD, so he probably is the cleverest but that's not the point!).

The profession is going through a lot of changes and soon others will be allowed to do our work. Good luck to them, I say. Good luck to anyone that wants a go. Good luck also to the clients who go for the cheaper option.

The way things are going, it might be the only option open to them. The rest of us might well be running the local McDonald's by then - it'd probably be more enjoyable.