Low pay and crippling debts mean that students are reluctant to take a job in legal aid.

Chris Baker examines what can be done to persuade young lawyers to do publicly funded work

When just 1% of trainee solicitors agree with the statement 'legal aid lawyers are well paid', it is easy to predict a looming recruitment crisis in this area.

A combination of low pay, poor job prospects and crippling levels of debt all add up to what can only become a shortage of solicitors willing to undertake publicly funded work.

The Law Society recently carried out a survey of slightly more than 1,500 trainees and 2,100 students.

The results do not paint a happy picture for legal aid.

Just one in ten said they were considering it as a career while more than half wanted to work in City or commercial firms.

When choosing a firm or organisation for a training contract, nearly all cited the quality of training on offer.

More than three-quarters of students, and 81% of trainees, said long-term salary prospects were key.

Slightly more than half the trainees and 96.5% of students said a comparatively high starting salary was a deciding factor - and 92% of the students wanted to become trainees in a firm with prestige.

While nearly 60% in total thought they would work in legal aid if the playing field were level, it does not sound good for the sector.

'There is little support at the student level for the idea that legal aid is a valid career choice, and a constant message that all lawyers should be aiming for the City, with legal aid being for those who can't make it there,' says Legal Aid Practitioners Group director Richard Miller.

'This undermines those who might prefer a legal aid career even before the financial issues are considered.'

But Mr Miller does see student debt as a huge issue that can only exacerbate the problem.

He also points to the housing support offered to 'key workers' - NHS, police and fire brigade staff in most cases.

Many of these groups are in the same income bracket as legal aid lawyers, he says, but solicitors are not offered the same support.

The survey did find nearly a quarter of trainees were between 10,000 and 15,000 in debt, while 44% of students were in the red to the tune of 5,000 to 10,000.

A small number - around 1% - had managed to incur debts of 40,000 or more.

'I attend numerous careers fairs and make presentations to students mainly at legal practice course (LPC) level but also occasionally to those considering postgraduate diplomas,' Mr Miller says.

'The fact that legal aid firms are rarely able to offer sponsorship is an immediate deterrent.

To a growing extent, the lack of any long-term career structure within legal aid fields is proving to be a further deterrent: students perceive that within the legal aid sector, they will have great difficulty clearing their student loans.'

However, of those who responded to the survey, just 10% said financial support for the LPC informed their choice.

'Most people can get into university these days, but the test comes when you have to fund your LPC,' says Nadia Akhtar, an associate at Rochdale firm Pennine Solicitors and immediate past chairwoman of the Trainee Solicitors Group (TSG).

People are having to make sacrifices, she argues.

Those with an interest in legal aid have become more 'savvy' about remuneration.

But the mass exodus out of legal aid work also makes it more difficult for people with an interest in the field to find a training contract, Ms Akhtar adds, pointing to recent increases in firms undertaking pro bono work to fill the gap.

She agrees that the maintenance grants offered by the larger firms can also sway graduates.

'It's going to be very attractive if you have 20,000 or 30,000 debts, but it's not in the best interests of the legal system,' she points out.

'We're seeing a decline in legal aid work and a decline in the number of young lawyers who are qualified to undertake the work.

It's a vicious circle that could have implications in the coming years.'

To an extent, it was ever thus.

A survey a few years ago of first-year students at Harvard Law School in the US found that 70% expressed a desire to practise public interest law.

However, by the time they had reached their third year, the number of students keen on that career path had collapsed to 2%.

Where a graduate does his training will also make a difference, Ms Akhtar says.

It is difficult to move into corporate work for those who do their training contract at a high street firm, she explains.

Gary Slapper, director of the Open University's law programme, argues that around half of prospective law graduates are motivated to study the discipline because of its social importance.

But he adds that recent research has shown prospective students, and their main sponsors - their parents - opt for a subject that carries a high chance of employment and good pay after that.

'Law is the top of that list,' he says.

'Of course, people who choose law as the quickest way of paying off a student debt are not necessarily people who do not also have a lively interest in the subject, so it is a bit early to make any judgement about what effects these changes will have on the quality of the legal profession in 2020, by when the new intakes will have become a substantial part of that corpus.'

But how to tackle the problem of graduates and trainees abandoning legal aid? Perhaps one answer would be for publicly funded firms to borrow a few of the techniques employed by the City.

The big firms get in first, and are not shy about it.

'When you open up a law graduate programme, it's the larger firms who flash all the attractive packages,' Ms Akhtar says.

'Smaller firms cannot afford to do that.' The issue is something that the TSG is looking into at the moment.

'[Larger firms] get brochures, presentations, attendance at law fairs, all with a big sell that commercial careers are where it is at,' says Mr Miller.

The City is good at selling the 'glamour,' he says.

But he has encountered people who made the switch from commercial to legal aid when they realised the job was not as glamorous as it seemed, and became frustrated by a lack of contact with clients.

'But the income gap is now so vast that it is increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to downsize in that way,' Mr Miller adds.

'A newly qualified solicitor in a big City firm will be on a salary that many legal aid lawyers will never see.

The skills gap is also increasing.

I see little that the average legal aid lawyer has in common with the average commercial lawyer.'

Ms Akhtar says she thinks people moving from a City firm to legal aid are 'extremely rare'.

She adds: 'One of the problems working for a large firm and moving to a small one is the lifestyle change.

You would have to be very secure.'

The Legal Services Commission (LSC) says it is aware of the problem and is taking steps with the Law Society and LAPG to tackle it.

It has allocated 7 million in grants to train 300 legal aid lawyers and has produced publicity material of its own, it says.

'Since I took up my post in June 2003, I have visited colleges on several occasions and spoken with students,' says LSC chief executive Clare Dodgson.

'Their commitment and enthusiasm for the law has been inspiring.

I want to ensure that we harness that enthusiasm for the good of the most needy in our communities.'

As legal aid fees are unlikely ever to match City salaries, the profession and public will almost certainly have to hope that enthusiasm never wanes.

Chris Baker is a freelance journalist