The pay gap is the smallest it has been since the financial crisis in 2007 and accountant’s pay is 3% higher than it was pre-recession, when the average salary was £34,900.

The average pay for lawyers (£41,602) is still 2.4% below its peak of £42,633 in 2009. In 2009 the average pay for accountants was £34,072, just over 20% less than lawyers but now stands at just 13.7% less.

Accountancy firms have been strengthening their legal services division over the years, therefore they have been able to take work from law firms by offering lower, fixed fees.

Simon Curry, chief executive officer of Nixon Williams, said: ‘Compared to the legal profession, demand for accountants held up reasonably well during the recession and has picked up markedly since.

‘Pay for accountants and finance professionals has pushed past its pre-recession peak and is continuing to rise while lawyers are still struggling to come to terms with the post-recession market.’

During the recession, large accountancy firms cut back on graduate training programmes which lead to a shortage of qualified candidates meaning that pay was raised, suggest Nixon Williams. However, law firms have the opposite problem of too many lawyers when demand has reduced.

Curry said: ‘Brexit may produce a short-term boom in work for lawyers, as well as accountants, as organisations turn to their advisers as they prepare for the post-EU commercial landscape.’

Pay gap between accountants and lawyers 2007-2015