In December 2022, we published an article titled “Where are all the lawyers going” looking at the increasing number of people leaving the legal profession. High levels of stress and low levels of flexibility compared to other professions was beginning to push people away from practice and into other career paths.
Despite this, the Law Society announced a record high number of practicing solicitors, suggesting that even if more people were leaving, an even great number were arriving. However, this trend looks set to end with many UK universities struggling to fill their law degree cohorts. Clearly, the profession needs to retain a strong talent pipeline in order to thrive, so this is a topic that requires careful consideration.
What’s happening to law degrees?
Earlier this month, The Lawyer ran an article looking at the struggle many UK universities are experiencing with filling their law degree cohorts. As of 30th August, Leicester, Keele and UEA were all still advertising places for this upcoming academic year, despite historically good reputations for their law degrees. Even Cardiff fell into this bracket, despite being a Russel Group university.
Richard Simmons rightly states that this raises serious questions as to the health and sustainability of the law departments at these institutions. According to the University and College Union, roughly 30% of UK universities are struggling financially. Despite being a place of learning and personal development, universities are ultimately still a business. Should they decide that law degrees are no longer financially viable to run, then we may start to see an important pathway into the profession slip away.
The cost-of-living crisis continues
It’s all well and good observing that fewer people are doing law degrees, but this is only useful information if we understand why. An obvious starting point is the cost of living.
In May this year, inflation fell to 2% meeting the Bank of England’s target for the first time since July 2021. Therefore, you would expect the financial burden on ordinary people to have eased somewhat compared to recent years. However, costs still remain extremely high. Between May 2021 and May 2024 food prices rose by 30.6%: by comparison it previously took 13 years for food prices to last rise by that amount (between January 2008 and May 2021).
Save the Student did a breakdown this summer of how much university costs in. Their National Student Money Survey found that an average 3-year degree costs £66,560 when accounting for tuition, accommodation, entertainment and other essential living costs. Although student finance is available, it is often not enough to cover outgoings, forcing students to take up jobs alongside their studies. If we as a profession want our students to truly immerse themselves in their course, forcing them to work every other waking minute of their university lives seems counterproductive.
The impact of the SQE
An alternative explanation as to why courses are struggling to fill their cohorts is that you don’t actually need a law degree to become a solicitor. Technically, this is nothing new. Since 1977 aspiring lawyers have had the option of doing the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) as a postgraduate course following a non-legal degree. However, from 2021 onwards, the anyone who is aiming to become a solicitor in England and Wales has to take the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE).
Part of the eligibility process for this is that you have to hold a degree, equivalent qualification, or equivalent experience. However, there is no requirement for this degree to be a law degree. The SQE comes in two parts, and part one involves a focus on blackletter law. By the end of your SQE2 candidates will also have practical experience and theoretically be ready to practice as a newly qualified (NQ) solicitor (subject to being signed off).
Allowing aspiring lawyers to choose which path into the profession they wish to take is surely a good thing for them, but it isn’t necessarily a good thing for universities.
Is the legal profession still appealing for young people?
So far, we’ve assumed that young people still want to enter the legal profession, but either can’t due to financial reasons, or have chosen a more modern route into it. However, this data could also suggest that the legal profession is not as appealing a place as it once was for young people.
One thing that appears to remain attractive about the legal profession is the salary newly qualified lawyers are able to earn. Slaughter and May have announced that they will be paying their NQs £150,000 per year from as early as this month following a decision to bring their pay review forward. This is even still behind US counterparts such as Goodwin (£175,000) and Gibson Dunn (£180,000).
However, this has rarely been considered a problem within the profession. Work-life balance has always been the struggle with 12 hour days becoming the norm for many big city firms and lawyers routinely working up to 10 hours overtime every week. This is why we highlighted in our aforementioned article that as many as 37% of UK lawyers had considered leaving their role due to the adverse impact it had on their mental health.
A recent study by Hubstaff found that 73% of workers believe that work-life balance is a core factor in choosing a job. The same study also found that roughly half of those surveyed would leave their job if it prevented them from being able to enjoy their life. The legal profession cannot afford to lose half of its aspiring lawyers, and it begs the question, is the current state of the profession putting young people off? Only 36% of Gen Zs consider their job to be central to their identity, down from 46% for Millennials. Does this suggest that the prestige of the legal profession may be wearing off to reveal trouble beneath the surface?
What can we do to reverse this trend?
The best way to solve a problem (after identifying it) is often to state what you’re trying to achieve in a simple sentence. Here, the legal profession needs to make itself as appealing and as accessible as possible so that young people want to work within it.
Taking the problem in two parts, there is plenty the legal profession can do to make itself more appealing. Despite demanding clients and billable hour targets, law firms must do as much as they can to make sure that staff aren’t consistently working massive amounts of overtime. At Pinsent Masons, we have seen a scheme launched whereby fee earning staff have their hours tracked and flagged to senior team members if they exceed expected numbers.
Beyond this, a healthy work-life balance requires a degree of flexibility and autonomy. Hybrid and flexible working models are one way of achieving this. 90% of workers say that flexible work schedules would increase their moral and 85% of workers say that remote work would make it easier for them to balance their work and their home lives.
Another way of achieving career flexibility and autonomy is by promoting opportunities for lawyers to work in freelance or consultant roles. This doesn’t mean cutting ties with a law firm and going it alone: a study we conducted last year with Crafty Counsel found that ALSPs provided roughly 50% of work for the consultant lawyers surveyed. 70% of all respondent consultants said that they picked this career path because it gave them greater autonomy and flexibility. We also found that in a comparison of consultants to employed lawyers, the consultant group had a slightly higher job satisfaction level. By no means will freelancing solve the entirety of this problem, but for a large number of aspiring lawyers it might offer a career path more in line with their expectations of work.
Finally, it would be remiss not to consider the accessibility aspect of this problem. The SRA believe that the SQE will go some way towards increasing accessibility to the legal profession, and whilst they may have a point, there are still high costs associated with training. In truth, much of this is out of control: the legal profession has very little control over the cost of living associated with university. However, firms continuing to fund portions of training and / or enabling parts of the training to be paid (as is the case with the SQE) is a good start. In some ways, the high earning potential may continue to entice aspiring lawyers, however, the profession must be mindful of the general economic climate moving forward.
Conclusion
Vario Flexible Services looks to empower lawyers at all seniority levels by providing a freelance legal service that works for lawyer and client alike. This career path brings with it greater autonomy and flexibility that for many makes the legal profession an attractive place to work.
Increasingly, we are seeing growth in our Flexible Services Paralegal offering. This can of course be utilised by career paralegals, but also crucially by early career professionals who are looking to see whether they like the prospect of a legal career.
We’re by no means a complete answer to the question of how we encourage aspiring lawyers to continue to enter the profession. However, for some people this model will make all the difference. If you’re interested in becoming a Vario Consultant, apply today to see how we can help your legal career.
For further information, please contact:
Henry Hilton, Pinsent Masons
henry.hilton@pinsentmasons.com
