Glut of graduates threatens hope of career in law
THOUSANDS of middle-class graduates who spend years trying to qualify as solicitors will never secure jobs in the legal profession and will instead end up saddled with thousands of pounds of debt, the chief executive of the Law Society has warned.
Speaking before a report this week that is expected to recommend big changes to Britain’s system of legal education, Des Hudson said young people were not being warned about the shortage of legal jobs on offer.
“We think there is an oversupply of graduates and we think that inadequate information is being provided to parents and students,” he said.
“Many [young people] do not understand the risks they face in trying to become a trainee solicitor. After doing a first degree, youngsters are spending £10,000 on postgraduate law courses.
“We estimate 2,000-3,000 people a year are emerging from those courses with no immediate prospect of a training contract with a law firm and becoming a solicitor. We believe some people who are being sold these courses have no reasonable prospects of being hired to become a solicitor.”
Hudson hopes the report, to be published on Tuesday, will recommend the creation of an apprenticeship system, letting some train on the job rather than pay for postgraduate courses.
The report has been compiled by a team of academics and has been presented to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Bar Standards Board and Ilex Professional Standards, the regulator of members of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.
The postgraduate legal practice course (LPC), designed to provide a bridge between university and training in a law firm, is the final vocational stage for becoming a solicitor. Fees for the one-year, full-time courses range from about £6,000 to £13,550. Graduates in subjects other than law also have to complete a graduate diploma in law before tackling the LPC.
Beth Williams has so far applied to 10 law firms for a training contract but has been rejected by all of them. She has friends who have amassed 60 rejections and just one member of her law conversion class has so far secured such a contract. Competition is so fierce that some firms are requesting applications just to attend open days.
“We had to fill in an online application for the open day of one Bristol law firm recently and it was like a job application. Three of us got turned down,” said Williams, who gained a 2:2 in history and architecture from Cardiff University before embarking on a one-year law conversion course.
The 22-year-old, who borrowed £6,000 from her family to pay for the course, says she may apply for paralegal positions or even jobs outside the profession.
“If I got in to a law firm at the bottom rung, I’d be able to work my way up. It is just so competitive out there,” she said. “There are so many more graduates than there are training places . . . I’m lucky because my family are very supportive. At least everybody on my course seems to be in the same position at the moment.”
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