Petition Prohibit trainee solicitors to be classified as an apprentice

The SRA is considering the abolition of the minimum wage requirement for trainee solicitors. The current minimum trainee salaries is £16,650 outside Central London. The purpose of the minimum salaries was to prevent exploitation and to attract high quality applicants to the profession.

Now they want trainee solicitors to be considered as an apprentice; paying an hourly wage of £2.60.

Is this why people spend 3 years at university and a further year doing an LPC at a cost of £10,000+....to be able to earn £2.60 an hour?

In my view this will make it very difficult for young aspiring solicitors to become qualified - it will be those who are rich and can afford to fund the way to this point.

This will disengage the legal profession and will not add any value to it.

There will be in excess of 100,000 signatures collected to show the support of those who feel the same way with an aim to prevent the SRA from abolishing the minimum wage requirement for trainee solicitors.