Letters to the Editor

Solicitors slurred

I have recently been elected to the Law Society Council and am in a small two-partner practice, which was established in January 2002.

My response to Andrew Holroyd's recent comment article (see [2002] Gazette, 24 October, 16) is to ask whether the large public limited companies and other non-solicitors he and the Law Society sees employing solicitors to undertake all types of legal work (including conveyancing and probate) will be most interested in obeying the Law Society, pandering to the wishes of their solicitor employees or making profits for their shareholders and owners?

Common sense says it will be the latter.

Profits will be the main motivation - so why employ expensive solicitors when you can employ legal executives or paralegals and open huge conveyancing factories with plenty of non-legal staff? Why worry when the Law Society strikes off the few solicitors you have employed? There will be plenty more in the pool of labour left after the bankruptcy of so many small firms.

Mr Holroyd mentions the RAC and says that it will be in the company's interest to promote the solicitor 'brand'.

Is this the same RAC that recently claimed that its survey of clients revealed that a quarter of them think that solicitors are 'untrustworthy' and half thought their solicitors were 'arrogant, incompetent slow or dishonest' (see [2002] Gazette, 30 August, 4)? Is Mr Holroyd accepting these figures as accurate? Or does he agree that this devalued the solicitors 'brand' and cast a slur upon all solicitors?

Finally, those of us who specialise in criminal law will recognise the sentence 'some solicitors will shift to the employed sector, but many would welcome the liberation from having to run their own business and to letting someone else watch the bottom line'.

This is the argument used by the Community Legal Service and the government to promote the public defender pilot scheme.

Surely, Mr Holroyd is not advancing that as an alternative to private practice?

Matthew Gauntlett, Law Society Council member for Berkshire and North Hampshire

More contracts needed

It was disappointing to read that the Trainee Solicitors Group helpline has recently seen an increase in the number of calls from paralegals largely complaining of firms reneging on the promise of a training contract.

Law Society recruitment regularly deals with calls of a similar nature from those looking for paralegal work and/or a training contract.

The majority is made up of graduates who have successfully completed the legal practice course; their long-term aim is obviously to qualify as solicitors.

To suggest that the best way forward for them is to qualify as legal executives makes absolutely no sense at all.

Most have put a huge amount of time, money, and effort into completing their legal academic training.

Owing to the high level of competition for trainee positions, many look for work as paralegals in the hope that they will gain experience which will eventually enable them to secure a training contract.

The best way forward is for there to be more training contracts.

Paralegals are important contributors to the legal workplace and should indeed be treated with respect and fairness.

Maria Hargadon, recruitment consultant (solicitor), Law Society Recruitment

A licence to work

I refer to your editorial 'Putting the 'par' into paralegals' (see [2002] Gazette, 24 October, 16).

There is another option available - licensed conveyancers who offer conveyancing services exclusively and are fully qualified property lawyers.

A requisite standard of education and/or proven practical experience in conveyancing is required for registration as a Council of Licensed Conveyancers student.

The qualification course is demanding, leading to foundation examinations at degree level, and final examinations equivalent to those for final professional examinations.

There is a fast-track procedure for Fellows of the Institute of Legal Executives, law students and graduates to apply for licences.

Having held an employed licence for three consecutive years (or where exceptional circumstances are made out) licensed conveyancers are entitled to apply for a full licence to practise on their own account; enter into partnership with other full licence holders or set up a limited company.

Enid L Watson, director of Education & Licensing, Council for Licensed Conveyancers