Apparently British solicitors have way more fun than their counterparts in tne rest of Europe and the United States. Earlier this year, James Wolcott wrote a Vanity Fair article in which he wondered: Why are British sex scandals so much better than ours? He was referring to the scandals of political leaders. But the same appears to be true about the legal profession. A host of lusty lawyers have been dropping their briefs to enjoy a bit of rumpy-pumpy at the office.

Steamy tales of sexy solicitors and passionate partners were revealed recently by trade magazine Legal Business. They took the form of a Christmas quiz on gossip picked up by the mag’s journalists – prompting a massive guessing game in the legal industry to identify those involved. The questions posed include:
1. Which female partner at a top City law firm was banished to Asia after she was caught having a three-some with two trainees in the office?
2. Which City partner had to take time off to save his marriage after discovering his wife was having an affair with a Premiership footballer?
3. Which leading partner was so tired of waiting for a cab in Cannes, France, that he hailed a hooker and asked her to drive him to his hotel, before paying her for the lift and asking her to leave? What's so bad about that last story? He was just being smart and resourceful. Other saucy stories involve a secretary smitten with a lawyer who bashed an office love rival with a bottle of champagne. Then there was the law firm partner who hired an assistant, then bedded her after taking her out for “celebratory” drinks. The girl felt so guilty at cheating her boyfriend she quit before she officially joined.

A career in law used to be considered as safe as houses, but that was before the property slump. With the market for conveyancing now virtually nonexistent, newly qualified solicitors say they are finding it almost impossible to get jobs.

Some legal firms are letting staff go, and more redundancies are likely to follow, unless the property and construction industries make a comeback later this year. The decline in property-related legal work, both commercial and residential, means that redundancies are particularly accute in the field of conveyancing. Many new solicitors got jobs in conveyancing during the property boom, and obviously that’s dead and there’s no sign of it returning. Many solicitors who had been devoted entirely to conveyancing work will have little or nothing to do at the moment. When the market was booming, firms hired a huge amount of newly qualified solicitors, but that market is now nonexistent. There have been redundancies within legal firms. And there'll be more. Law firms have to be realistic if they haven’t got work for their staff.

If you've been affected by the recent turmoil in the housing and financial markets, tell us about your experiences by contributing to the discussion here!

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