Minimum standards

I have some sympathy with the current predicament the Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) finds itself in.

Having resurrected the call for a minimum wage for trainee solicitors last week, it has brought again to the fore a hot potato that had been cooling over the past few years.

Having been involved at various levels with the JLD, and before that the Trainee Solicitors and Young Solicitors Groups for almost ten years, I know first-hand that even among junior lawyers back in the day, there was no unanimous agreement that a minimum salary was the right way forward. That was at a time when a trainee could be guaranteed a £12,000 annual reward for their labours, and less tax and national insurance of course.

A basic minimum is not a big deal and the response from some members of the profession has been, at best, short-sighted. In the past week I have heard and read comments from the well-reasoned to the plainly nonsensical. The reality for many recent and hopeful entrants to the profession is a sack load of debt and a dwindling dream. Conservative estimates price a university education and law school at around £40,000. If, as many law firms seem to prefer these days, you convert from a non-law degree, the cost rises by a further £10,000 to £15,000, and that's before any living costs. I suspect that many critics of the JLD's call will, like me, have enjoyed a free education while at university and few will have been burdened by the current costs of professional legal training.

It's right that the minimum wage should be debated again, but let's have a sensible debate. We are living in a new world where there are genuine alternatives to being a solicitor and, although we may be reluctant to acknowledge it, the solicitor brand doesn't guarantee the cache or cash incentives it once did. Yet, there remains a huge oversubscription for training contracts at all levels.

Reports from junior lawyers of unpaid work experience (for up to two years), of prioritising short-term earning potential to pay off debt and the stalling in paralegals, suggests that there is an issue to address that runs much deeper than how much someone is paid under a fixed-term training contract which has itself been the subject of calls for reform.

Not least among these concerns is the quality of training provided and the huge disparity between firms up and down the country.

A standard training contract does not exist, but there are minimum standards expected.

It might be time for the interminable Legal Education and Training Review to deliver what it has promised for so long.

Kevin Poulter, editor at large

#SJPOULTER 

editorial@solicitorsjournal.co.uk