It is that time of year again, when students receive news that will hopefully get them on the first rung of the ladder to a legal career. 335,000 pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland learned their A-level results on August 16.
Despite the increases in fees, the universities have reported a substantial rise in applications to study law. In a climate where we are told that there are more lawyers than jobs, perhaps this increase is even more surprising.
Over the last 20 years the total number of solicitors with practicing certificates has grown by more than 206 per cent. Despite the increased number of students applying to undertake law degrees, when it comes to dealing with the legal practice course, which solicitors are required to undertake if they are to qualify as a solicitor before securing a training contract, there are still a substantial amount of places that have not been allocated.
Although many reasons are given for this, I believe it is largely because students are struggling to access funding for the course. The result is that we are in danger of becoming a profession that does not represent the diversity of the community in which we live and work.
In 2010 – 2011 solicitors from black Asian and minority ethnic (BME) groups accounted for just 12.6per cent of all solicitors on the roll. Having completed the legal practice course, lawyers must then secure a training contract for a period of two years before qualifying as solicitors.
The profession finds itself in a confusing place.
The myth of the oversubscribed profession is not borne out by the facts, which show that there is a substantial shortfall in students available to take up training contracts for the number of vacancies available.
If we are to attract and maintain the brightest in our profession, we need to make sure that students have access to a law degree, are able to fund a legal practice course and ensure that we learn from past mistakes by providing training contracts which enable those from less affluent backgrounds to undergo such training.
We are still full of the optimism which arose during the Olympics. If our students, trainees and young lawyers of the future are going to be the best that they can be, we must give them the opportunity to do so.
* Mary Kaye is the president of Birmingham Law Society
