Too rich to quit? Top lawyers reveal how £100k private school fees, hefty mortgages and first-class flights keep them in City law

High salaries, even higher expenses

City law firm salaries may be enough to fund a life of luxury, but for some top lawyers, the expensive habits that come with hefty paycheques are making it increasingly difficult to walk away.

And there’s certainly plenty of money to spend. The 2027 Legal Cheek Firms Most List shows that newly qualified (NQ) solicitors at the highest-paying firms can now earn north of £180,000, while average profits per equity partner at some elite firms run into the eye-watering £5 million to £9 million range.

But with big salaries come big expenses. Contributors to a Reddit discussion have revealed the lifestyle upgrades keeping them tied to their high-paying jobs, from hefty mortgages and private school fees to five-star holidays and flash cars.

The discussion, which centred on the so-called “golden handcuffs” of corporate law, saw one contributor get straight to the point:

“I mean it’s the mortgage. You need to live reasonably near work to have a tolerable lifestyle, which means expensive location, which means big mortgage.”

“Leaving the salary would mean moving house for most of us. A massive hassle,” they continued, before warning against the financial commitment of private education: “Signing up to guarantee paying tens of thousands a year to a school for 12+ years? No thanks.”

Not everyone had managed to avoid that particular expense. One London-based poster revealed that educating three children privately was costing them a staggering £100,000 a year out of post-tax income, admitting that the fees “really ties you into maintaining the salary”.

Another contributor shared how their monthly mortgage repayments had climbed from around £1,500 for their first flat as an associate to £4,500 today. And the spending doesn’t stop at property.

“Holidays and travel are another one. You go on a nicer beach holiday than you used to. And then a nicer one,” they explained, adding that the demands of the job can make these luxuries feel increasingly necessary. “You also justify it more and more because of the job ‘I need the holiday to destress from this job, I can’t last unless I have these holidays’.”

For others, the finer things in life have become difficult to give up. One Redditor described being upgraded from business class to first class, declaring: “the bastards know what they are doing with those upgrades, so now I can’t slum it in business.”

Elsewhere, a poster who said they started at A&O revealed that they had bought a BMW, although four years later the car had given them “many expensive problems”. They also admitted to eating at Dishoom three or four times a week, regularly spending £60 to £70 per visit.

Another poster confessed to splashing out on “luxury bags and beauty services (hair, Botox) so my look matches my billing rate”, adding that they could no longer look at a Coach handbag in quite the same way as they did at law school.

Not everyone, however, is keen to find themselves locked into the City law lifestyle.

One lawyer explained that they had deliberately avoided taking on a mortgage or buying a car, knowing they would eventually leave the City for a lower salary. “I am just trying to save as much as I can so when I take a lower salary, I can have my lifestyle stay pretty much the same but just save less,” they wrote.

And for one particularly forward-thinking contributor, the answer has been to splash out now on quality items that will last well beyond their legal career.

“I’ve ended up buying a lot of ‘buy once cry once’ / BIFL-type products, from cookware to clothes (well made shoes mainly) to furniture,” they explained, “on the assumption that there will come a point in time where I’ll be burned out, take a lower salary, and can no longer afford nice stuff that lasts.”