http://youngpapblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/green-eyed-monster.htmlThe Green Eyed Monster
Posted by Nicholas Lazarus at 6:53 AM
The recent proposal to increase Ministerial and Administrative Officers pay has drawn the usual criticisms about justification of such increases.
From my perspective, the criticisms are not much different from what I hear of my profession.
I am a litigation lawyer in private practice and every now and then I get comments from clients, friends and the like who are wont to say:
“Lawyers, Wah! One letter and you charge hundreds of dollars!”
“Lawyers, talking only can charge so much money!”
“So easy thing you Lawyers do and can make so much money! Good ah!”
“Don’t need to charge so much, ah! My case very easy lah- only write some letters, ah!”
Well, the very easy response that I have is- if itÂ’s so easy, please do it yourself.
The simple fact is that ours is a specialized profession. We have to study for long hours in the University for 4 years, attend post-graduate courses and undergo pupilage. It takes years of training as a Legal Assistant to stand on your own and conduct cases. This is one of the reasons why there are so few of us out there and why so many young lawyers leave the profession.
We deserve what we earn because every piece of work that we do is done after careful consideration of all possible permutations that are favourable or adverse to our clients. We can do what very few people can. If our services are all that simple, then it is a matter of our clients representing themselves in person. (Which of course they do not because they cannot.)
But more fundamentally, underlying all these comments is the green eyed monster. People just see the money being made (or rather being perceived to being made) by lawyers and belittle us and our efforts due to envy.
Which is why I have a lot of empathy for our Ministers. They do a job that very few people can do and they deserve to be paid accordingly. The question to be asked by the critics of their proposed pay increase is this- are you criticizing because you honestly do not believe that the Ministers are entitled to a pay increase or is it because you are simply envious?