I was featured in a recent Legal Services Commission (LSC) press release promoting the LSC's training grants scheme ('Nearly £3 million available to train the next generation of legal aid solicitors').


I was cited as an example of someone who benefited from the scheme and who was able to secure a training contract with a highly-regarded specialist firm as a result - a firm at which I continue to work and at which, the LSC was keen to point out, my work has recently been recognised with a nomination for a Young Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year award.



The LSC training grant scheme is one of the few LSC policy successes in recent years and so, on one level, I was glad to hear that it is being continued.



However, there is no point holding me up as an example of one of the scheme's success stories whilst simultaneously pushing through a package of reforms which will, from October 2007, make it impossible for me to continue to carry out the specialist casework that has led to my nomination.



It will be impossible because, from October 2007, my firm faces a pay-cut of over 50% for all Legal Help work and will, from that point, be paid the same amount per case for the work that I carry out as an unqualified CLS Direct adviser working in a call centre on £16,000 per annum.



If the LSC wants a new generation of talented legal aid lawyers, there is no point luring them into legal aid with training grants if, on qualification, the dumbing-down of legal aid means that their specialist skills will go to waste.



Adam Hundt, Pierce Glynn, London