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Reality check advised for money-hungry law students

Polly Hui

The Law Society and universities should do more to manage the expectations of 'money-driven' law students who only want high-paid jobs in large corporate law firms, a lawyer urged yesterday.

Competition in the profession is increasingly fierce, he said, with more than 400 people entering the sector each year with a postgraduate certificate in laws (PCLL), offered by the University of Hong Kong and City University.

Young lawyers also had to fight hard with more experienced ones for cases in the duty lawyer scheme, which has seen the number of lawyers steadily rising from 1,384 in 2003 to 1,493 this year.

Michael Vidler, a solicitor on the criminal law and procedure committee of the Law Society, said the situation was not a result of an oversupply of lawyers.

Instead, it pointed to a discrepancy between law students' expectations and reality, and their tendency to gear their education towards corporate law, rather than acquiring the 'people skills' that were vital for the profession.

'Sadly, a large number of law graduates dream only of joining a large city firm to practise corporate law, making partner in their first year and earning millions a month,' Mr Vidler said. Those students were ill-equipped to advise clients on everyday problems.

He said there was room for the Law Society and schools to better manage students' expectations and encourage them into such areas as criminal law and human rights, and to work for small firms.

Bar Association chairman Philip Dykes said the city's population could support more lawyers. 'Compared to western Europe and the US, we have a long way to go.'

Dhirendra Srivastava, associate dean of City University's law school, said demand for programme places this year was at a record high, and that less than 30 per cent of the 900-odd applicants were successful. He agreed that students chose to go where the money was good.

Johannes Chan Man-mun, dean of the University of Hong Kong's law school, said his graduates had favourable employment prospects and that students acquired people skills from their studies and their training period with law firms.

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