UK Law Articles
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The Times
May 19 1998
Trainee lawyers complain of low pay and long hours
BY FRANCES GIBB, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT
MANY trainee lawyers are hard-up and disillusioned and believe that they are in the wrong job, according to a survey published today.
The survey of 200 trainees in solicitors' firms for Lawyer magazine shows that 39 per cent would like to leave the legal profession.
Many students were drawn to the law by the prospect of earning a fortune, the survey found. Instead, competition for the most lucrative training contracts in commercial firms is so intense that they are most likely to end up in small High Street practices earning a fraction of what they expected.
The widespread disillusionment over pay and working conditions revealed in the survey, conducted for Lawyer magazine, is in stark contrast to the perceptions of students.
One trainee on £10,850 a year said: "I was earning more money per hour washing dishes in a hospital kitchen than I do as a trainee."
That salary is the Law Society recommended minimum wage for a trainee but the survey found many students earning much less. Many trainees were also working up to 65 hours a week and complained that the work was boring and unfulfilling.
Mary Heaney, editor of Lawyer, said: "Many trainees told us they only realised they didn't want to be a lawyer when they were well into their seventh year of academic and workplace training. However, they feel unable to throw away years of training only to be left with a mountain of debt and nothing to show for it."
