The legal profession rarely features in these pages, so it is good to report a victory by workers at law publisher Legalease who have won a £2,000 annual pay rise after taking strike action late last month. Legalease is a London-based publishing firm that produces the Legal 500 series of directories, Legal Business Magazine and guides to global legal firms. While it piously claims to be a London living wage employer, its workers are struggling on low salaries while needing to live and work in London. Forty-two of the 58 staff were involved in the two-and-a-half-week strike action.

This action came after a bitter recognition battle in 2024, which saw two members of staff fired for trade union activities. This time round Legalease workers earlier rejected a 3.4 per cent pay offer and a revised £1,200 uplift, well short of their original £2,000 demand which has now been secured in full. In the earlier stages of the strike Management complained about noise from passing traffic tooting support for the picketing strikers; the City of London Police speedily dismissed this.

When the strike began, Unite regional officer Will Searby said he was told by Legalease that “it is not in line with their ‘pay principles’ to raise pay when business is going well”.

At the conclusion of the dispute, Searby said that: “This dramatic about turn from Legalease management shows that our members were right to demand their fair share, and that when they stand united, workers win.”

As an amusing footnote, it is worth recording that last Friday, perhaps because of the dispute, Legal 500’s rankings accidentally included not just the top lawyer rankings but attached bad reviews to the normally glowing profiles. This resulted in the listings being speedily removed, but not before one silk was described as: “disorganised and indecisive” and another being “sexually attracted to fish”. Some lawyers will need to consult Legal 500 to learn about the best libel lawyers.