Confession time! I had a remarkably easy ride to qualifying
as a solicitor in the early 1980s. I had a student grant and no fees to pay for my
Law Degree and Postgraduate course. I went straight from The College of Law into
a Training Contract – or Articles as they were back then. On qualification I
had a choice of jobs!
To Law Students today that sounds like something from
Science fiction.
For them it is a different world and I feel the need to
admit my guilt and apologise – but please don’t put that on a You Tube video!
Today’s students face tough competition to get on a course.
Then they have to pay £9k a year in fees for starters, plus living
expenses. This is funded by eye watering student loans. Most rack up about £50k’s
worth by the time they finish.
Then, to add insult to injury it is nigh on impossible to get
a job. Some find themselves working as paralegals for years in the hope that it
might lead to a training contract. Well that is the case for would be solicitors,
the situation for young barristers is even worse.
There are many who simply drift into a permanent paralegal position
and never reach actual qualification.
Those who do get training contracts now face the additional problem
of the abolition of a minimum salary so they might be paid a pittance after
years of hard work and accumulated debt.
This could take us back decades to a time when only the rich
became lawyers. A legal profession which does not benefit from talent from
across society is not representing that society.
I suspect that we will see more students qualifying via
different routes. There is already talk of introducing competencies which can
be reached in different ways. So paralegals and legal executives will be able
to achieve the same status as Solicitors and Barristers even if they don’t use
the name. The Legal Executive qualification was given a massive boost when the Institute
earned its Charter earlier this year. By this route we have ‘lawyers’ who have
worked in the real world. When I was let loose on the world in 1980 I was as
clueless as could be!
So instead of going to study law we could see school leavers
beginning what is in effect a legal apprenticeship. It is clear that something
has to change.
The traditional pathway through academia and exams must
surely decline. And the profession could be the stronger for it.
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