WORKPLACE BIAS In the article 'Does the Law begin at 40?' Maddie Blackburn comments that, as a training applicant in her 40s, 'she could safely assure potential employers she would not be having any more children' (see [2001] Gazette, 11 January, 27).Is Ms Blackburn's implication accurate that legal firms routinely discriminate against women of child-bearing age? If so, we live in a frightening world where even lawyers flout the law.

Ms Blackburn also refers to 12-hour days as standard working practice.

If you work a 12-hour day you probably won't stop long enough to read this, but if you do ask yourself these questions: When do I work most efficiently? Do I make mistakes through fatigue? Do I feel under pressure? Do I act irrationally or get emotional/angry without apparent cause? Is my home life suffering, do I have trouble sleeping, do I drink too much caffeine and/or alcohol, and do I take enough exercise? Try this experiment: over a four-week period restrict your working week to 10-hour days and no weekends, and see whether your productivity drops.

You may be surprised.

Finally, Ms Blackburn suggests that it is part of the trainee's role to do the photocopying.

If this practice is followed in your office, how can you justify such an inefficient use of your firm's human resources?Ms Blackburn made a brave decision to requalify in a new discipline.

Neither she nor any other trainee should be rewarded for years of dedicated study with discrimination in the workplace, pressure to accept working hours detrimental to her family life, and inefficient and unnecessary working practices.AAM Inglis, solicitor, Falkland Islands