It is astonishing that the Government is making criminal defence work even less appealing

Sir, – When I attended the Law Society’s Professional Practice Course (PPC) from 2012-2014, I was one of only a handful of trainee solicitors working in a criminal defence firm. The large majority of my classmates were training in commercial law, with a smaller cohort in general practice.

More than a decade on, hardly any of that handful remain criminal defence practitioners. Some of us have chosen to specialise in other areas, while many of those who continued to practise in criminal law have gone to work for the Director of Public Prosecutions – after burning out from years of late nights and weekends spent “on call” and attending prisons and Garda stations. Criminal law is now an elective module on the PPC.

In these circumstances, which should already alarm anyone who cares about a functioning criminal justice system, it is astonishing that the Government would seek to make criminal defence work even less appealing. Trainees and newly qualified solicitors should be encouraged to practise in this vital area of law. Under the new legal aid regime, the opposite will happen.

Incidentally, the six-figure legal aid fees repeatedly highlighted in the media are used (in part) to pay the wages of trainee solicitors, as they did mine. When criminal defence firms can no longer afford to take on trainees, where are future criminal solicitors going to come from? – Yours, etc,