UK Law Articles
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The Times
October 12 1998
Bar is in danger of return to elitist era
BY FRANCES GIBB LEGAL CORRESPONDENT
THE Bar is in danger of returning to the days when it was an élite profession and the preserve of the privileged and wealthy, according to a report to be published shortly.
The report says that the cost of entry to the profession is now so great that there is a "potential crisis" over recruitment that threatens the future of the profession. Young people must now finance themselves through five years' study and training before they qualify for the Bar, by which time they may have incurred debts of between £15,000 and £25,000.
Three years at university can cost up to £15,000. On top of this comes the cost of two further years' training for the Bar - a one-year course and a year's training in chambers - which totals on average £22,000.
The risk, says the report, is that "the Bar reverts to being an élitist profession of the privileged few", unless changes are made urgently in the way that new entrants are financed.
The detailed report, by a committee chaired by Peter Goldsmith, QC, has been sent to the Bar Council, of which he is a former Chairman. Its proposals include the funding of 500 training places at the Bar at a cost of £2 million, and the recruiting of students while at university, so that they have the certainty of a place. Money to fund the training would be raised by the profession, by loan schemes and by the Inns of Court.
The report says that several factors have contributed to the crisis of funding and increasing student debt. Grants from local authorities - without which many top QCs such as Cherie Booth would not have entered the profession - have all but dried up. Coupled with the Government's introduction of university tuition fees, this has meant great financial hardship.
Ms Booth fought her way to the Bar in the Seventies from a working-class background. To finance her training she took holiday jobs and secured some funding from her Inn of Court. But in some ways she had it easier than today's trainee barristers. Last year she expressed concern about the Bar becoming an élite for the well-off. "It is a tragedy," Ms Booth told The Times, "that people from backgrounds such as my own are now finding it difficult to enter the profession."
The report says that also contributing to increased student debt is the competition for training places in chambers (pupillages), and then for permanent seats in chambers (tenancies). Students have to finance themselves through their training with no certainty that they will obtain a place in chambers.
This is in stark contrast to the circumstances facing would-be solicitors, many of whom have their places with law firms assured while they are at university and, if they are recruited by big commercial firms, have their training paid for. The report says that this creates a risk of the ablest students choosing to become solicitors.
Nigel Savage, chief executive of the College of Law, the largest training body for would-be lawyers, said that the funding problems would continue until chambers were prepared to follow the big City law firms in paying more towards financing new recruits. "Some of the cream needs to be skimmed off so it trickles down to the students," he said.
Not guilty plea on 'fat cat' charge
SALLY HANCOX is a young criminal barrister. At 26 she has debts of £17,000, but she is better off than many of her contemporaries (Frances Gibb writes). "Of four of us who shared a flat, I am the only one who made it," she said. "Most have debts of £10,000 more than I do."
Like Cherie Booth, QC, she comes from a working-class background and went to a state school. Her father is a haulier and to finance her training she worked for him as a lorry driver. "My parents helped fund me through university and Bar school and I still owe them £5,000," she said.
Her debt has been increased by the cost of post-graduate training. Last year she argued her first case but had to wait months for payment. She gets annoyed with those who think she must be a fat cat. "I am paying my bank loan from my overdraft. Last month my gross earnings were £730, of which almost all goes on chambers rent."
