The Law Society's training framework review proposal to remove the legal practice course (LPC) is a mistake and represents a backtrack on what has been achieved since the abolition of the articled clerk, which in my view opened the profession to working-class entrants.

For those of a working-class background, the review represents a further discouragement to choosing law as a career. I chose the LPC over the bar vocational course for the precise reason that as a working-class person I stood no chance of gaining a pupillage as I did not have the necessary contacts. I believed that in doing the LPC I stood a better chance of getting a training contract for the reason that the law was now more accessible to mature individuals and those who were not from not a traditionally middle-class background. I wanted to have an equal footing with other candidates and passing the LPC enabled me to compete on a level playing field.


This [the training framework review proposal] cannot be the way the profession wants to go - it will result in a regression to a system where students pay for their articles and the profession produces solicitors who are all middle-class white men.


Sally Gill, trainee solicitor and office manager, College of Law Legal Advice Centre