Moore, K --- "Mortgaging the Future" [2005] LegEdDig 30; (2005) 13(4) Legal Education Digest 19

Mortgaging the Future

K Moore

[2005] LegEdDig 30; (2005) 13(4) Legal Education Digest 19

38 Law Teacher 3, 2004, pp 349–360

The author undertook a small scale survey in 2003 in the UK with full-time Legal Practice Course (LPC) students. The aim of the study was to ascertain the current extent of LPC students’ debt and determine the relationship between that debt and the students’ studies and career aspirations. When the students were asked to identify how they intended to finance their LPC studies, 81 percent said they were self-financing and 68 percent relied on some form of borrowing, such as a career loan or a professional postgraduate loan.

There is evidence of an increase in debt levels overall but the increase at the top end of the scale presents a particularly worrying picture of future indebtedness for prospective young solicitors. Such debt may have an effect on the career choices of these students. In order to offset their debt many undergraduates boost their income by taking part-time jobs during term time. The use of part-time earnings by many students to offset their debt may be a factor as to why some LPC students accumulate substantial debts. Unlike undergraduates who find the time to hold down a part-time job, these students, on a highly intensive course, do not have time to seek paid work. Those students who had not secured sponsorship but did have a training contract showed a lesser concern about debt than those students without a training place.

According to the latest Law Society annual statistical report, there is an exact correlation between the number of practising ethnic minority solicitors and the ethnic minority population as a whole. Despite the Law Society’s statistics, which suggests that all is well as far as recruitment of ethnic minority solicitors is concerned, the Society has acknowledged, in its current Training Framework Review, that some students appear to find it harder to secure training contracts and this poses an obstacle to qualification.

In a competitive legal environment firms that offer sponsorship want the best students they can recruit. Academic achievement is bound to be a major factor influencing choice. Debt in itself does not appear to be an overriding deterrent to those who wish take up an LPC place, though it may deter some students from seeking a place on a preferred course. The ability to secure training contracts and sponsorship seems to be closely linked to academic performance and attendance at the ‘right university’. Evidence suggests that leading city firms regard it as novel to look outside a limited number of established universities for their trainees.

The Law Society appears anxious to show through its latest statistical survey that ethnicity is not a bar to entering the profession. The leading city firms appear to be making considerable effort to demonstrate their involvement in schemes designed to encourage more applicants from ethnic minorities. Yet this evidence sits uncomfortably with the data obtained from the author’s study which reveals that none of the declared ethnic minority students had obtained training contracts and therefore equally none had obtained sponsorship for their LPC courses.

It would appear that for some students, no matter how well they acquit themselves on their undergraduate and postgraduate vocational courses, the opportunities open to them are limited by reason of pre-existing conditions, such as their ethnicity and their socio-economic or academic backgrounds. These students do not seem to have the opportunities to break into the ranks of the leading city firms. It does not appear to be simply a problem of debt that prevents some students from fulfilling their career aspiration, rather a lack of opportunity. If it is really the intention of the Law Society to seek a diverse, representative and inclusive profession, providing opportunities at all levels, then, not only will it have to review the cost and delivery of postgraduate courses and training, but it will have to convince some of the major firms to look beyond their exiting recruitment policies.