I was saddened to see the suggestion that the trainee solicitors' minimum salary may be abolished (see [2006] Gazette, 13 April, 8).

I was chairman of the Law Society's Associate Members Group (subsequently renamed the Trainee Solicitors Group) in the late 1960s when we first suggested a minimum salary. At that time, it was the welfare benefits subsistence level of £11.50 a week.


We undertook a detailed survey, which found that trainee solicitors were being exploited on a large scale. Some were not being paid at all. It was this evidence, among other things, which persuaded the Law Society to recommend a minimum salary to solicitors.


Trainees need training contracts; solicitors do not necessarily need trainees. It is not an ordinary employer / employee relationship. Trainees must have the protection of a minimum salary. If it needs to be renegotiated, that is a different matter.


Bruce Edgington, Gravesend, Kent