Whether you want to help people seek justice, follow in the footsteps of other prestigious professionals or simply build transferable skills that will help you transfer into another career path, law can be a fulfilling career path. However, certain cities offer brighter prospects when it comes to finding a job that pays well and allows you to maintain a decent standard of living. Read on to discover the top cities for legal professionals.

Top Cities

The research revealed that, despite the high cost of living, London is still the top UK city for those looking to work in the law industry, with an index score of 8.6 out of 10. Legal professionals in the capital city can expect to earn an average of £71,737 with approximately 17% of their monthly earnings being spent on day-to-day expenses (excluding rent).

Surprisingly, Wigan beats out larger cities like Birmingham and Manchester and takes the second spot, with an index score of 7.9. On average, lawyers working in Wigan take home £63,079 a year, with just 8.5% going towards general expenses.

At 6.3 Birmingham takes the third spot. Lawyers in the second city make an average of £58,444 per year. Rounding off the top 5 are Plymouth (5.9) and Manchester (5.8).

Worst Cities

Preston has been crowned as the worst city to have a legal career, with an index score of 3.5. With average annual earnings of £50,209, lawyers in this city can expect nearly a third (29%) of their income to go toward daily living expenses – and this does not even take into account rent.

Swindon is the second-worst city, with an index score of 3.71. Although lawyers in Swindon (£39,893) can expect to make slightly more than those in Sheffield (£34,701), there are far more job opportunities in Sheffield and the cost of living is lower.

With a score of 3.95, Stoke-on-Trent takes the fourth spot, followed by Derby (4.04).

Methodology

Witan looked at the average reported salary for legal professionals in the UK’s 50 most populated cities, as well as the number of job opportunities currently available on Indeed. To improve the accuracy of the data, cities with less than 20 reported salaries were excluded from the dataset. The team also looked at the average cost of living in each area based on reported monthly expenses (excluding rent). Each city was ranked based on an index score out of 10. The city with the highest index score was crowned the best city to have a legal career.

If you have any questions about our findings or methodology, please email lhoneghan@witansolicitors.co.uk.