Corporate law firms should help fund a radical new 'collegiate' training system for lawyers, the president of Cardiff Law Society said last week.

Speaking at Cardiff University law school, Roy Morgan - also chairman of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group - proposed a system modelled on doctors, where academic training runs alongside the practical, which itself comes in various environments.


He said students could be paid a salary for secondments to private practice or advice agencies and law centres as part of their training, funded by either the Legal Services Commission, participating organisations, or corporate firms.


Mr Morgan said many large firms provide trainees for pro bono work to gain experience in client contact and face-to-face advice, which probably costs them millions of pounds of lost profits.


'A contribution by such firms to the collegiate system with the prospect of trainees being seconded and acquiring relevant skills may prove an attraction,' he said.


'Such a system could ensure the provision of keen young legal aid lawyers, burdened with less debt.'