Special pleading for all

Families of law students will not be the only people shouting foul over the government's planned university top-up fees.

But ministers should pay special attention to the objections of the the legal profession for one crucial reason - the fight against social exclusion.

Lawyers are the framers and the upholders of the rule of law which binds society together.

As such, they above all others should be drawn from as wide a cross-section of society as possible.

As both the Law Society and the Bar Council have pointed out this week, top-up fees could only add to the already heavy burden of debt facing law students.

The prospect of high debt will discourage those students from less affluent socio-economic backgrounds from considering a career in the law.

Ministers want the legal profession to redress its historic problems of social elitism, to which both branches have contributed in the past.

And, with schemes such as the Law Society's Young Graduates for Lawyers, governing bodies are trying to open the profession to those from non-traditional backgrounds.

But the government must realise that social inclusion is a two-way street.

This is not a matter of special pleading for lawyers, but instead of special pleading for society has a whole.