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Well, that's me royally boned. I'm a Crim solicitor in a provincial firm. If the firm I work at get both own client and duty contracts, my job might be secure although the fixed fees are already so abysmal I don't see how our Crim Dept can sustain itself long-term, particularly once the July cut comes into effect. We're already stripped back as far as possible in terms of staff and resources - I'm preparing stacks files from start to finish, including advocacy at trial, with barely any support. If my firm don't get a contract and have to partner up with a contracted firm, I certainly won't have the flexibility to be at their beck and call because all other major competitors are at least a 70-mile round trip away. This is the reality of the reforms for provincial firms. I'm not trained for any other area of law so I have no other job prospects if our Crim dept/the entire firm goes under. Will the MoJ be providing counselling/retraining services for the huge number of good lawyers whose lives will be ruined by all this, let alone the defendants who will suffer because they'll have no access to a good lawyer in the first place? I suspect not.