The Law Society has published its Annual Statistical Report 2014 and it makes for bleak reading for students.
A record number of students graduated with a law degree - 16,120. But they were chasing a dwindling number of jobs. There were 5,302 training contracts on offer in 2013, but last year this had fallen 6% to 5,001. That's a 20% decline on the pre-credit crunch high of 6,303 training contracts in 2007. Assuming that around half of training contracts go to non-law grads, that means the chances of getting a TC for those with law degrees is less than 20%.
However, while law firm graduate recruitment has been falling, there has been an increase in the number of lawyers with practising certificates (currently 130,328, up 20% on the 2007 figure of 108,407). The fall in grad rec and the rise in the number of practising lawyers suggests that solicitors are staying in practise for longer - exacerbating the situation for those at the start of the profession.
Despite the problem the SRA has shown no interest in trying to regulate the numbers of graduates who are flooding into law schools with poor degrees and poorer prospects. In March it announced that it was actually withdrawing from the grad rec code. So the law schools can continue to relieve students of £14,750 a year for an LPC which, for many, may turn out to be worthless.
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A record number of students graduated with a law degree - 16,120. But they were chasing a dwindling number of jobs. There were 5,302 training contracts on offer in 2013, but last year this had fallen 6% to 5,001. That's a 20% decline on the pre-credit crunch high of 6,303 training contracts in 2007. Assuming that around half of training contracts go to non-law grads, that means the chances of getting a TC for those with law degrees is less than 20%.
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A law student with a training contract, yesterday |
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A law student with no training contract, yesterday |
However, while law firm graduate recruitment has been falling, there has been an increase in the number of lawyers with practising certificates (currently 130,328, up 20% on the 2007 figure of 108,407). The fall in grad rec and the rise in the number of practising lawyers suggests that solicitors are staying in practise for longer - exacerbating the situation for those at the start of the profession.
Despite the problem the SRA has shown no interest in trying to regulate the numbers of graduates who are flooding into law schools with poor degrees and poorer prospects. In March it announced that it was actually withdrawing from the grad rec code. So the law schools can continue to relieve students of £14,750 a year for an LPC which, for many, may turn out to be worthless.
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