Paying the Price

I was interested to learn that Professor Savage, chief executive of the College of Law, advocated scrapping the training contract as a requirement to become a solicitor, as it formed the 'sole factor inhibiting...

graduates' considering their career paths (see [2002] Gazette, 2 May, 4).

Might I suggest instead that the major disincentive to qualifying as a lawyer rather than, say, an accountant, is the exorbitant tuition bill levied by institutions such as his.

Since I attended the college in 1997, fees appear to have risen at a rate of around 10% annually, far outstripping inflation.

Coupled with undergraduate student debts and often CPE fees, graduates do indeed have an uphill struggle to qualify.

Although salaries are low on most training contracts, they offer invaluable assistance and 'real life' experience that colleges do not provide.

I cannot be alone in finding that the contract was an incentive to me joining the profession as a non-law graduate, rather than an inhibitor.

Karen Boother, solicitor, Steele & Co, London SW8