UK Law Articles
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The Times
August 3 1998
Passing the exam was easy, says Nick Armstrong who explores why lawyers need to be made out of heavy mettle
The law of reality bites
If you listen closely this morning, you might just hear 6,500 young lawyers start breathing again. Throughout the country, envelopes are landing on doormats bringing this year's legal practice course (LPC) results.
About 5,500 will have passed the course first time, a further 1,000 can expect to pass on a resit and about 4,700 will have secured a training contract by September, when most law firms start the two-year vocational training that leads to qualification as a solicitor.
The 800 who did not get jobs are in trouble. They are highly qualified, but for only one job. They are highly motivated, but they are competing for work with the 1,100 or so who did not get jobs last year and the 2,000-odd from the year before. They thought that they were entering a high-earning profession, but they now have debts of up to £20,000 and no income. They have gambled and lost.
Only the legal profession asks its recruits to place such a bet. Only the legal profession expects students to undertake and fund their training without providing an income. The LPC costs up to £6,600 in fees alone and in some cases that figure is rising by more than 6 per cent a year.
Even those with jobs will have debts incurred during the LPC: trainee salaries are often just high enough to make undergraduate loans repayable. Then there are the commercial loans used for the LPC. If the law firm is also a lender, it will want repayment during the training period. The result is crippling repayments. Trainees may face other problems. Ten per cent of trainees suffer from discrimination or harassment at work, prompting a Trainee Solicitors' Group (TSG) helpline. Several weeks ago that help-line took its first suicide call. Two weeks later, it took its second. On the helpline, we hear from trainees being asked to take unethical shortcuts at work, and dismissed when they refuse. Sometimes, the abuse is sexually and racially motivated. I have heard of the word "nigger" used by a solicitor against a trainee.
The Law Society is looking at tightening up monitoring of firms that take the trainees, but, ultimately, monitoring requires a complaint, and few trainees are willing to make one. The problems arising on the helpline are, of course, very specific. But they can sometimes reflect issues of more general application.
Overwork is a common problem among trainee and young solicitors. A recent report suggested that 39 per cent of trainees would not join the solicitors' profession if they had their time again and overwork was cited as a cause. Another report revealed a 40 per cent turnover of assistant solicitors at City law firms. Hours worked and other quality-of-life answers were given. Solicitors are rejecting the traditional pressures of private practice and opting instead for life in-house, life in academe or life completely outside the field.
Salaries do not always compensate for these pressures. Contrary to popular belief, most solicitors are not highly paid. A Law Society salary survey two years ago reported an average salary for solicitors (excluding partners) of £24,000. This dropped to £20,000 in firms with more than a quarter of fee income from legal aid.
Another issue for those entering the solicitors' profession is job security. This varies according to which area of law you want to specialise in, and specialisms that were attractive a year or so ago are less so now. For example, no one coming through the system now should ignore the government proposals to reform civil justice and legal aid. They will affect not only the choice of specialism, but the choice of firm.
Most commentators agree that the proposals will favour the large practices. Even those trainees working in large City firms, traditionally considered a more secure area of practice, are subject to these changes. Commercial and corporate work is booming at present, but everyone remembers what happened to commercial property during the last recession. Given the prediction of another recession, the smart money in legal recruitment is probably on insolvency work.
Not all of these changes are threats. For lawyers prepared to watch market changes, opportunities are opening up. The incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Fairness at Work White Paper and the Competitiveness Bill vie with each other to be the next big thing. The Lord Chancellor's proposals to extend rights of audience to solicitors on qualification represent another opportunity.
Regulation of the world is increasing, but in some areas, the regulation of the legal profession is decreasing. The key to succeeding in the profession is spotting these developments and positioning oneself accordingly. The problem for those tentatively opening their post this morning is getting that chance. Unfortunately, debt, maltreatment and arbitrariness still play too great a part in determining who those lucky few will be.
- Dr Armstrong, a trainee at Irwin Mitchell, Sheffield, chairs the TSG, and is a Visiting Fellow at Nottingham Law School. For more details of the TSG, contact Rita Oscar, 0171-320 5794.
