Financing your career

The rewards can be good, the work fulfilling and diverse. However, achieving your goal can be expensive, and you need to map out how you will arrive at your destination, whether you wish to go down the solicitor or barrister route.

Take stock

Following your degree course, unless you have very supportive parents, you will have already built up substantial debt. On average you will owe in excess of £6,000 to the Student Loan Company, have credit card debts of £1,500 and a student overdraft of £2,000. Before embarking on postgraduate education, the costs involved and the impact of your current situation should be researched and talked through with your parents and your bank manager.

What are the costs?

Further education:

• CPE £5,000 - £5,500
• LPC £7,500
• BVC £8,500
• Law Society membership £200
• Bar Council fee £250
• Books £200

Living costs vary, with London and large cities being more expensive - allow £7,000 in London and £5,000 in the provinces.

By this stage of your calculations, the road to a career in law seems rocky. What can you do to smooth the path?

Sources of funding

First of all look for bursaries, scholarships and training contracts. For would be barristers, the four Inns of Court all offer substantial scholarships each year. Students must join one Inn, and can only apply for funding from that Inn. Demand always exceeds supply, and it is worth speaking to the administrators at the Inns as early as possible to discuss their criteria.

Trainees who are starting a conversion course and LPC can apply for the Law Society Bursary Scheme. Again, get in early and ascertain the ground rules. Aspiring solicitors can also contact the larger law firms, who can cover the cost of the LPC and help by way of grant or loan through this expensive period.

In reality, these grants and bursaries cannot cover anything like the number of applications, and alternative means of finance should be sought.

Choose your bank with care!

To see you through this vital stage of your training, some financial support will undoubtedly be needed.

Do not be afraid to change banks, as the next few years will probably be the time when you are most in need of an understanding bank manager. Ask other legal students or your college who they would recommend. Most clearing banks have special professional loan schemes, where finance from £5,000 to £25,000 is available with many deals at competitive rates, as they view you as their potential high earners! The trend is to structure the finances with the minimum repayments now, and loans on a long-term basis being repaid when you can afford to.

What will your borrowing look like?

A typical profile at the end of LPC/BVC study would look like this:

• Overdraft (graduate loan) fluctuating up to £2,000
• Credit card - try to repay this from summer work or consolidate onto graduate loan - £1,000
• Long-term trainee professional loan - £15,000

On top of this the student loan will be in the background, either the 'old style' pre-1998 entrance loan which can be deferred until you are earning £16k per annum, or the 'new style' post-1998 entrance loan, where you start making repayments through your salary in the April after your completion of studies, at the rate of 9% (gross) on any earnings above £10k.

And finally...

Is all the effort and expense worth it? The answer in most cases is a resounding Yes. The average income for a solicitor qualified for five years is £50k, and for a barrister £80k.

But to get to this position, careful planning and active support is needed to navigate through the financial minefield - good luck!

Ash Khan:

NatWest Manager dedicated to the trainee solicitor and barrister market at Law Courts Temple Bar Legal Centre

Law Society

020 7242 1222

Inns of Court

Inner Temple

Yeshim Mather

Head of Education & Training

Tel: 020 7797 8208

Middle Temple

Anthea Tatton-Brown

Treasurer's Office Middle Temple

Tel: 020 7427 4800

Lincoln's Inn

Judith Fox

Students Administrator

Treasury Office

Tel: 020 7405 1393

Gray's Inn

Margaret Chadderton

Deputy Under Secretary, Gray's Inn

Tel: 020 7405 8164

Finance

Career Development Loans

Freepost

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE85 1BR

The following banks offer loans tailored for students:

NatWest Law Courts Legal Centre

PO BOX 11052 217 Strand

London WC2R 1AR

E-mail:

natwestlegalcentre@talk21.com

Tel: 020 7664 9113

Lloyds TSB

Law Courts, 222 Strand

London WC2R 1BB

0345 30 00 04

Barclays

Contact Any Branch