The All Parliamentary Group on legal aid is meeting on 11 July 2012-details via LAPG below
"On behalf of Yvonne Fovargue MP Chair of the APPG, and on behalf of Young Legal Aid Lawyers and the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, we invite you to the next meeting of the APPG on Legal Aid on Wednesday 11th July at 5pm in Committee Room 9. (As always, do allow time to clear security.)
" Is LASPO the end of legal aid lawyers and the end of diversity and social mobility in this part of the profession?”
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act will mean a cut in legal aid provision of at least a quarter. The cuts are far reaching and it is not yet known how firms and not for profit organisations will respond. It is not necessarily the case that it will be business as usual for providers because the loss of funding for one area of law may mean that the rest of their work is no longer viable.
Coupled with reduced numbers of training contracts, increasing numbers of para-legal posts, the cost of university tuition fees and an end to the minimum training contract salary, there is mounting concern about where the legal aid lawyers of the future will come from. And those who can afford to fund the four years plus of study are likely to be less diverse than has been the case for the last thirty years. The Legal Education and Training Review will be reporting with its proposals by the end of the year.
Just as the health service needs doctors and nurses to continue so the legal aid system needs solicitors and barristers with the requisite skills to carry out complex and challenging work.
Parliamentarians and speakers from the Legal Education and Training Review, the Bar Council, the Law Centres Federation, Young Legal Aid Lawyers, the Law Society and other interested groups have been invited to speak at the meeting
If you wish to attend or have any questions please could you contact info@appg-legalaid.org"
