ABS - A Question from the PCC

We have recently completed the delivery of another Professional Competence Course programme at the Royal Faculty of Procurators at Glasgow and found, as usual, as much wisdom on the trainee side of the programme as on the trainers' side. In particular, one of the trainees, perhaps a little older than the average, it has to be said, posed a question which we now pose as an open question to our Society's membership, to the profession at large and, more particularly, to the Scottish Parliament. Our colleague explained that he had chosen, as a mature student, to pursue a career in the legal profession with the objective of becoming a solicitor in his own practice. He understood that, in order to achieve this objective, he would require to undertake (and finance) a law degree for four years followed by a further year at university doing a practical diploma and that he would thereafter undergo two years as a trainee solicitor during which period he would undertake a compulsory Professional Competence Course following which period of traineeship, he would require to serve a further three years as an employed solicitor before he would even have sight of the holy grail of being a self employed solicitor. Throughout that period, he would require to remain free of serious offending and bankruptcy, the latter objective being somewhat more daunting, given the long period of nil or low earning that the process would involve. He was now well down his chosen road and labouring arduously with the traineeship period when he was informed that the law was about to change so that a person could become the owner of a law practice by simply putting up the money. He therefore asked the question how it could be possible for the law tomorrow to permit the financial acquisition of a legal practice when it was today recognised and established that all the foregoing training, qualification and practical experience had to be undertaken in order to achieve that objective?

Fit and proper person test? You must be absolutely joking.

Secretary