Free legal help threatened by low wages?
Legal Services 07 Dec 2010
Free legal help might be under threat from downward pressure on wages and hiring among providers of the service, as an expert notes junior lawyers working in this sector are "looking more than ever like an endangered species".
An end to the £2.6-million-a-year legal aid training contract scheme elicited a "furious response", the Guardian reports, with smaller firms recruiting lawyers from less wealthy backgrounds among those hardest hit.
Free legal advice professionals are often relegated to paralegal duties in the absence of sufficient job opportunities, with many working for free in a bid to break into the sector.
Young Legal Aid Lawyers founder Laura Janes describes the work as "fascinating and rewarding", but warns the budget cuts mean it is "hard to see how legal aid firms will survive in the way we know them".
Those previously considering a career in free legal advice may be forced to explore other options in a bid to earn more than the £10,000 paid to trainee barristers.
Published by Tessa Jones
