Report comment

Please fill in the form to report an unsuitable comment. Please state which comment is of concern and why. It will be sent to our moderator for review.

Comment

Not everyone thinks that having a minimum salary for trainee solicitors is a good thing, but the reasons for not having one given here and previously just don’t make sense if they are thought through.

Social mobility in the profession is getting worse, not better. The removal of the minimum salary will worsen social mobility further.

This isn’t about ‘special treatment’. Junior doctors, teachers etc will never earn the national minimum wage due to pay banding. The only comparable profession, as detailed in the Milburn reports, where there was no minimum salary was journalism and that isn’t exactly lauded for social mobility. Paying, or part paying for your training contract would only make this worse.
There are members of the profession who think that it should be the wealthiest and not the most talented who should make it but the SRA, under the Legal Services Act, has a statutory duty to increase diversity which includes social mobility.

And regarding High Street firms, these generally do not pay LPC fees retrospectively so any trainees within these firms will have to self-fund the LPC. Without a minimum salary they can earn as low as £11,500 gross on the national minimum wage, which is a monthly take home in the region of £900.00 (pre-student loan deductions). It’s not the most talented that will benefit but the more wealthy.

As for advising university students about realistic career prospects, the JLD do attend law fairs and give talks to undergraduates. I’m not sure why someone thinks Miss Dirir has 9 years' PQE when the Law Society website shows she qualified in January 2009.

It is correct that qualified solicitors do not have a minimum salary, but how many earn below the trainee minimum salary at the moment? How many will earn below £16,000 in 2 years’ time? The abolition of the minimum salary will drive down NQ salaries.

There’s no sense of entitlement. But will those from poorer backgrounds be put off knowing that having incurred all of that debt they won’t be financially any better off than working in Tesco / McDonalds etc.

If there is an increase in training contracts, which I doubt, the people best placed to take these training contracts on the minimum wage will be those who can financially afford to.

Your details

Cancel