Law students from elsewhere in the EU are gaining an unfair advantage over UK students, by being admitted as solicitors on the basis of paralegal work rather than training contracts, it was claimed last week by trainees.

Law Society head of training Julie Swan told delegates at the Legal Services Consultative Panel conference last week that the Society had received 'half a dozen' so-called 'Morgenbesser' applications for admission from EU students.


Of these, two foreign students who had then completed the common professional examination and legal practice course (LPC) in the UK, and had failed to get training contracts, applied to qualify as solicitors after two years' paralegal work. The adjudicator admitted them to the roll on the basis that the paralegal work they had done was equivalent to the experience of a training contract.


Under the Morgenbesser ruling of the European Court of Justice in 2003, the Law Society is required to recognise equivalent qualifications and experience gained by an EU national. It cannot insist that knowledge and skills are developed by following a particular path - for example through a training contract.


Ms Swan said: 'European applications are fairly persistent, and they will challenge us repeatedly with regard to our requirements.'


Peter Wright, immediate past chairman of the Trainee Solicitors Group, said: 'There are 4,000 students completing the LPC, and only 3,000 training contracts - so it is heavy competition. To find that people can bypass them quite easily is not fair. There is a very clear need for change, and Morgenbesser is one of the reasons for that. This would have been addressed by the Law Society's original training framework review proposals which would have required everyone to meet the same day-one outcomes, rather than have a compulsory training contract.'