I would like to say how pleased I was to see your opinion article ‘Bottom of the class’ (see [2009] Gazette, 29 October, 8).

I feel very strongly that class is becoming an increasing barrier in the legal profession and it will soon be the case that only the wealthy will be able to enter the profession.

Like you, I was lucky enough to attend university before tuition fees were implemented. I had to incur a large amount of debt to study the law conversion course and the LPC. If I had been left with a large debt from funding my undergraduate degree, there is no way I would have been able to undertake my legal training. My parents were not in a position to be able to fund me through either university or legal studies.

As you said in your article, social mobility will be increasingly inhibited by the rising costs of further education and the extortionate costs of legal training. I think the majority of the profession remains ignorant of this issue, which was why I was so pleased to see it raised in the Gazette.

It is a great shame bright students from poorer backgrounds will not be able to enter the legal profession unless the present system is changed.

Hannah Gray, Trainee solicitor, Finers Stephens Innocent, London