Trainees 'drowning in debt'

Postgraduate students owe banks huge amounts after 'astonishing amount' paid for LPC fees

Law students and trainee solicitors are finding themselves with debts of up to 30,000 before they start work, according to a recent survey.

Year-long research by the Trainee Solicitors Group (TSG) revealed that increased legal practice course (LPC) fees are leaving postgraduates owing banks huge sums.

The TSG has said that rising costs 'form a fearsome barrier to entry into the legal profession'.

TSG chairwoman Verity Chase said: 'With the average cost of the LPC set at approximately 7-8,000, total costs for the completion of this one-year course can amount to an average of 13,000 alone.

The Law Society needs to recognise that the younger members of the profession who find themselves drowning in debt may choose to opt for alternative career paths that will inevitably impact on the standard of entrants to the legal profession as a whole.'

Jane Swann, chairwoman of the Young Solicitors Group and a solicitor at London legal aid firm Fisher Meredith, concurred that LPCs now cost 'an astonishing amount', and she predicted the cost would be a major factor in people asking 'do I train to become a lawyer?'.

Ms Swann said: 'My biggest concern, though, is for those people who undertake the LPC without securing a training contract, as completion of the course does not mean you are qualified and students can find themselves out of pocket and unemployed.

It is the responsibility of the profession to deal with this - either you limit access to the LPC to those with training contracts or you say those who finish the course are qualified, like the situation for barristers.'

A Law Society spokesman reacted to the survey results, saying: 'The Law Society is concerned that the cost of qualifying might deter students who do not have significant financial support from their families from entering the profession.

That would damage our efforts to enhance diversity.

The Society has plans to extend its bursary scheme, and there is also sponsorship from individual firms.'

Andrew Towler