QUALIFYING WOES

I read with interest the article by Professor Nigel Savage, arguing for a re-evaluation of the qualification for and designation of 'solicitor' (see [2001] Gazette, 8 November, 14).In the early and mid-1990s, some members of the profession were concerned about an alleged 'oversupply' of practising solicitors, at the same time as many disappointed young people, having invested (and borrowed) significant sums of money to complete their degrees and legal practice courses, found themselves unable to complete their qualification as a solicitor because of the relative scarcity of training contracts.

Even today there are more than 7,000 students on full-time legal practice courses and 1,500 on part-time courses.

These aspirants to the profession will have spent large sums of frequently borrowed money to get this far, only to be thwarted at the last hurdle since they, together with around 1,000 or so successful but unplaced LPC 'graduates' from the previous years are chasing only 5,000 training contracts.

The remedy for this problem advocated by many in the past has been to put in place various restrictive practices, including an artificial limit on the number of 'authorised' LPC places.

Fortunately, such arguments have not prevailed.

However, we are still faced with the unfortunate situation of young people who have embarked on a lengthy career path only to find that factors beyond their control reduce the supply of training contracts.

The Bar handles these matters better.

Students can complete the Bar Vocational Course and be 'called', thus becoming entitled to use the professional designation of 'barrister-at-law', albeit non-practising.

In other words, the inability to secure pupillage does not prevent the acquisition of the formal professional qualification.

The logic of Nigel Savage's article, together with the practical hardships and potential 'waste' in the present system, surely calls for a re-consideration by the Law Society of the current regulations with a view to introducing, as with the Bar, a qualification of solicitor (non- practising) that can be awarded at the successful conclusion of the LPC.

David Yates, former Law Society Council member and former chairman of the LPC board