JLD demands later date for trainee minimum wage consultation
The Junior Lawyers’ Division (JLD) of the Law Society is calling for the trainee minimum salary consultation to be delayed until the conclusion of the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR).
Camilla Graham Wood
The JLD believes that the UK legal market is currently too unstable for such a decision to be considered, due to a range of concerns surrounding legal aid, alternative business structures (ABS), diversity and social mobility.
JLD executive committee member Camilla Graham Wood said: “The reasons for not consulting on this now far outweigh the reason for doing so, apart from the obvious fact that the economic climate remains unstable, there is also the uncertain matter of what impact ABS’s will have on trainees and their pay.
“With legal services going through drastic change, removing the minimum wage could be a risk. There is a real danger that without the minimum salary protection in place, those from less affluent backgrounds could be denied entering the profession.”
The legal body has made a freedom of information request to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) on a range of questions on its key concerns.
The news follows the SRA launching an online survey as part of its consultation on removing the annual minimum salary for trainees this month (9 March 2012).
This followed several face-to-face focus group sessions held across the country following the initial announcement in January (12 January 2012).
Readers' comments (3)
Confused | 20-Mar-2012 11:03 am
Why would this make any difference? People are aware of the issues in the market at the moment hence the reason for doing a long consultation. What difference will the conclusion of the LETR make?
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James Knight | 20-Mar-2012 11:10 am
Why is it even being consulted! Its a ridiculous idea - what person is going to work stupid hours for minimum wage!
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Anne | 20-Mar-2012 7:20 pm
@James - I would. as would many of my acquantances who view legal practice as a calling to serve the public.
I support the idea of a mimumun trainee salary in principle as it means firms will be on an equal starting position when they offer TC's and hopefully a reduction means more non-commercial firms will be able to budget for more places on a greater frequency. However, I do hoep it does not resort to minimum wage as it would be quite insulting to go through four years of University only to end up on the same money as secondary school colleagues who bummed out without even a GCSE to their name. However, as I said above, I would not begrudge the matter too heavily as at least I would know that I was on the path to my career - and the fact that there are no solicitors I have met yet who have not had a salary jump as soon as their TC was finished means that for those who have money worries it would not mean four years of law school to be stuck in the same wage bracket as a burger-flipper or shelf-stacker for too long.
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