More Confusion re BrE "fee earner"

We recently discussed the peculiar BrEism "fee earner", which seems to be restricted to the BrE legal profession and things associated therewith. Much evidence suggests that it simply is a term meaning "legal or paralegal professional or the like who bills clients fees for services rendered in the ordinary course of business". Under this definition, which seems to be used by UK courts in their efforts to enforce and encourage price-fixing and other anticompetitive practices within the BrE legal profession(s), a "fee earner" would be anyone from a partner in a firm of solicitors to a nonlawyer professional functioning similarly to an AmE paralegal.
Mike Lyle suggested a different, narrower definition, in which "fee earner" was in opposition, as it were, to "partner" (as of a firm of solicitors); a "fee earner" would be a qualified lawyer but one who was not entitled to share in the profits of the firm.
I now see some evidence of a third definition, possibly related to the LylE usage. See, for example, the website of a firm of solicitors in Wet Yorks:
http://www.chadwicklawrence.co.uk/kpmoreinfo.htm
It lists the various professionals at the firm, including "partners", "solicitors", "legal executives", and "fee earners". I note also that there's only one "legal executive" and she's listed pretty high up.
Clearly the various "fee earners" are at the low end of the totem pole because they're listed last and have only minimal contact information. This means we still don't quite know what a "legal executive" is, but that's okay. I don't understand whether "legal executives" are persons who are also "fee earners" and perform professional acts, or who simply manage the business of a law office (which is sort of what the title sounds like to the American ear).

If the former, then it would seem that a "legal executive" is more like a licensed version of a paralegal, and the various "fee earners" are then subordinate and unlicensed paralegals who nonetheless bill for their services and are thus different from, say, secretarial staff or the like. Perhaps they're labeled as "fee earners" because there's simply no other term available in BrE to describe them.