Trainee solicitors should be paid a minimum of £19,122 (£21,561 in London) as of 1 May, the Law Society has declared.
While not mandatory, the minimum rates are recommended good practice. Firms have not been required to pay more than the national minimum wage since August 2014, when the Solicitors Regulation Authority ditched the minimum salary for trainees of £16,650 (£18,590 in central London).
Adele Edwin-Lamerton, chair of the Junior Lawyers Division, which worked closely with the Law Society on the proposal, said: ‘The Law Society’s recommended minimum salary is an important component of access to the profession.
‘The method of calculation and the annual review assist in preventing personal finances acting as a barrier to talented individuals who would otherwise not be able to support themselves during the period of recognised training.’
Last week, NLJ reported the findings of a Young Legal Aid Lawyers survey that one third of legal aid lawyers with less than ten years’ post-qualifying experience earned less than £20,000 per year (see ‘Dark days for legal aid’, NLJ 23 March 2018).
