Recent reports of late cancellation of training contracts and promises dishonoured have forced The Law Society to issue a guidance statement to affected parties. The Firm’s reporter Kirsty Taylor takes a closer look at practices across Scotland to see how far the sacred bond between the profession and its trainees has been stretched.

It is the magic piece of paper coveted by all would-be lawyers. With around 600 training contracts started at Scottish firms each year, the traineeship acceptance letter has long been seen as the necessary Golden Ticket to the legal profession. But the happy promise of a secure career, the sure thing once offered in exchange for the thousands of pounds in debt accrued over years of hard study, is no longer a guarantee. Dozens of would-be legal trainees in Scotland are watching on in horror as their employment contracts, many written by the country’s most esteemed law firms, turn to dust before their eyes.

Amidst the scores of senior solicitors being laid off during this “white collar recession” the often more vulnerable junior members of the legal profession are bearing the brunt of firms’ floundering finances. Recruitment freezes and widespread redundancies are being applied to training contracts and horror stories abound of questionable practices, such as firms pulling names out of hats to decide which trainees’ contracts are honoured.  

The Law Society of Scotland has already heard of 55 trainees who have not been able to carry out the traineeships they had planned before the global financial crisis bore down on legal industry employment. Of these, 12 have had traineeships postponed for 12 months or longer, 25 have had contracts cancelled outright and 18 have been made redundant after starting work.

Pete Yetton and his family faced homelessness after a firm withdrew his training contract just three weeks before he was due to begin. The prospective practice emailed the father-of-three before his June 2008 start date to withdraw the offer after contracts had been signed - citing the current economic climate, as well as Pete’s request for three weeks off following the death of his father as the reasons. “I was left sitting with my whole house in storage and no home for my wife and three children because of this firm,” Pete told The Firm.

“We ended up in a tiny two bedroom cottage – we spent five months with three of us in one room and my two older children in the other bedroom.”

The former navy officer had accrued £15,000 debt over five years retraining in law and forfeited around £20,000 for the quick sale of his West Lothian house to move to the east coast to take up the role on completing his diploma.

“The law firm’s mission statement is People Are Our Business,” he added. “But what kind of business does not know until three weeks beforehand whether or not they could take on a trainee – I don’t know why the problem wasn’t noticed sooner.

“I don’t think the firms who are cancelling trainee contracts at the moment are thinking of the impact this is having on people’s lives.”

Another equally outraged graduate found herself the hapless member of the infamous ‘Blackadder Eight’, as the group of prospective trainees for the Dundee-based firm have become known, following the cancellation of contracts a month before their agreed start date last August.

“It was a bit of a farce from start to finish,” said the 24-year-old, who wished to remain anonymous.

“I have had no meaningful contact from anyone from Blackadders at any point in time. They sent a letter to me to the wrong address to tell me the traineeship had been cancelled due to the current financial climate. They said they hoped I would understand, wished me all the best in securing a new contract and sent me a £300 cheque as compensation.”

The would-be trainee, who is working as a legal administrator while applying for new roles, said: “They cancelled the 2008 intake of trainees without even an option to defer the start date – but there are trainees due to start in August this year, why did they not just defer our places?”

A spokeswoman for Blackadders Solicitors said: “Due to the impact of the credit crunch, and in particular the downturn in the housing market had on our business last year, we had to make the difficult decision to cancel our 2008 traineeship programme.

“We completed our appointment of trainees for 2009 some time ago, prior to our decision regarding our 2008 trainees and have not made a decision yet about opportunities for traineeships in 2010.” The spokeswoman added that those with cancelled traineeships would be eligible to apply for future traineeship posts as they were advertised.

But the jilted trainee told the firm: “A big part of being a solicitor is having good ethics but going by the way they have dealt with their trainees, I think I would rather choose a different career than say I am a solicitor for Blackadders now.”

The Law Society is extending the timeframe which disappointed graduates have to gain the two years training experience required to qualify as a solicitor, and some are using their arbitrary years out to travel or complete masters degrees. But even those nearing completion of training contracts are finding the lower rungs of the legal ladder more slippy than before, as widespread recruitment freezes threaten to stunt future employment prospects.  

One trainee, due to qualify at the Scottish branch of an international firm in August, echoed a view repeatedly expressed to The Firm when he said: “In terms of prospects, I’m not very optimistic. There’s a general feeling that firms will be recruiting internally and that if you don’t get kept on where you are, the chances of getting a job on the market will be almost zero, because any vacancies that do exist won’t get that far.  

“The most frustrating part of it all is the feeling that things are completely out of our hands. If it was a decision about whether or not we deserved to be offered a job, then at least we have the opportunity to produce good work and impress the employer. If it is purely a financial decision about whether we can be afforded or not, there’s very little we can do in terms of influencing that decision.”

Still, their albeit temporary job security is a blessing in the eyes of many, such as two of the four trainees due to start at McClure Naismith’s Glasgow office, whose names were plucked from a hat to decide who would wait until 2010 to take up their roles. A spokesman for the firm said the trainees were ‘fully involved’ in the process.

“Along with many other firms, we decided to defer two of the four trainee places in the Glasgow office for 2009,” he said.

“After full discussion with the trainees it was agreed that the fairest way was to select the two positions randomly.”

Both deferred trainees have been promised a start in 2010, with one employed by the firm in another capacity until then, and the other planning to take a gap year.

Tods Murray has also deferred half of this year’s training contract places for twelve months.

“We had offered places to 10 trainees who were due to start with us in September 2009,” said executive partner David Dunsire.

“Regrettably, as a consequence of the economic downturn, we have reviewed our requirements and decided to defer 5 of these additional places until September 2010.”

And Donald Shaw, managing partner of Dundas & Wilson, said the firm had also asked some of this year’s trainees to consider deferral, but said the firm still intended to employ around 50 trainees.

“A definite decision was made to protect trainees through our recent restructuring so no trainee jobs were lost,” he said.

“Part of honouring our responsibility towards trainees is ensuring we can balance the right kind of work with the available trainee spaces. The demand from clients is for greater involvement of the more experienced lawyers so that to an extent puts pressure on the type and volume of work available for trainees. Current economic conditions may dictate that future numbers should be reduced but we will not be cutting back on quality.”

A total of 592 training contracts were registered with the Law Society last year, a figure which, although an increase on previous years, is sure to strike fear among the 765 students due to graduate from the Diploma in Legal Practice and join the fierce competition among many previous graduates still desperately seeking a place. The Law Society has written to every firm taking on trainees in Scotland to find out their plans for agreed contracts in the face of financial difficulties, and their expected trainee intake in the coming years.

The governing body for all Scottish solicitors has urged firms to find different roles for trainees rather than laying them off or deferring contracts in the face of reduced workloads.

A policy statement in February clarifies its views on revoked trainee contracts, but has advised those facing redundancy or deferrals to seek their own advice on employment law.

Director of Education and Training Liz Campbell restated their stance to The Firm magazine: “The Law Society’s position is that the trainee’s contract cannot be terminated in terms of redundancy. We would advise any firm or trainee who is affected by these issues should seek legal advice and assess the potential risks and liabilities involved.” she said.

“Firms who have trainees and who have been affected by the downturn are being encouraged to look at the situation creatively by moving trainees on to different kinds of work, finding secondments, or perhaps sharing trainees between firms.”

But some trainees are angered by the governing body’s perceived lack of action. One unnamed graduate, who was told he did not have a case after seeking advice from an employment lawyer when his training contract was cancelled, said: “I sought advice, but I was told I wouldn’t get anywhere.

“When you get offered a job with a law firm you would think your contract is going to be honoured. If the Law Society was to uphold the cases of the people whose contracts were altered this year and last year you are going to have scores of people with claims against firms and the financial implications of that could be quite severe.”

The Scottish Young Lawyers Association is currently seeking legal advice on behalf of its members to help steer them through uncertain times. An SYLA spokesman said: “We are increasingly being contacted by members, in particular trainee solicitors, regarding redundancy, many of whom have no idea of where they stand in relation to their rights under the training contract.

“We are currently in the process of obtaining our own advice regarding the status of the training contract and how best to take matters forward on behalf our members.”

Though Pete Yetton endured four months of frustration and uncertainty, his perseverance saw him secure a place with Glasgow criminal law firm, Turnbull McCarron, in October last year.
He advises other disappointed new lawyers to stay positive in the face of harsh employment prospects.

“It is easy people to go downhill in this situation, but it is important not to lose sight of why we wanted a law career in the first place,” he said.

“Not getting a new contract just wasn’t an option for me after all the work I had put in. I went through all the law firms on the Law Society website, I phoned 450 law firms and I must have written about 290 letters. I knew I wanted to do criminal law and crime rates tend to rise in a recession so I got criminal lawyers to post messages on court notice boards.

“I am really happy at my new firm and I would encourage others not to give up either.”

But for the job-hunting Blackadders trainee, and many like her, the future does not look so rosy. She said: “It is a really difficult situation to be in, law firms recruit so far in advance that I am now looking at a start of September 2010 or 2011 if I can get onto another traineeship. By the time I am fully qualified I will be pushing 30, that is not what I had planned.

“As time goes on we are faced with so much more competition – with people who are just completing their diplomas we are up against 600 more candidates. You just wonder where on earth the opportunities are going to come from.”