SOLICITOR : How to become a.----The body that controls the admission, training, and examination of students who wish to be solicitors, as well as the discipline of the whole profession, is the Law Society, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., to whose secretary applications for current regula tions should be addressed. Given the necessary natural qualities, the well educated solicitor has the best chances of success, since, having the entry into a wide social circle, he has better opportunities for becoming known to people likely to need and able to pay for his services.
If he can afford it he should certainly go to a university, or, at any rate, secure a university degree in arts or laws. At school he must learn Latin, but not necessarily Greek, and he should try to pass some such public examination as the matriculation of the London University, the first class of the College of Preceptors, or the Oxford or Cambridge senior locals. The Law Society hold their preliminary examination four times a year and various centres; in their own Hall in Chancery Lane, and in Birming ham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and Newcastle-on-Tvne. The subjects are Latin, English dictation and composition, arithmetic!, geography of 'Europe, history orEngland, and two of the folioe ing :-- (1) Mathematics, including algebra to simple equations amid the first four books of Euclid; (2) More advanced Latin ; (3) Greek ; (4) French ; (5) German ; (6) Spanish; (7) Italian, Those who have passed certain examinations are exempted frcm the necessity of taking the preliminary, but until this examination has been passed, or some certificate has been definitely accepted by the Law Society in lieu thereof, no time spent in training can count towards enrolment.
Having passed the preliminary examination, the candidate must be articled to a solicitor or firm of solicitors. The usual term of such service is five years. The stamp duty on the articles is £80. The premium charged by a solicitor for a pupil varies with his standing from £100 to £400, or occasionally more, and he pays the student no stipend. The pupil may have to do a good deal of work that may appear to him to be drudgery, but it is drudgery that must be undertaken. A good deal of a solicitor's
business is connected with conveyancing, and in the documents connected therewith, as, in fact, in all legal documents, exact legal phraseology is of importance. In legal matters there are stereotyped methods of procedure which must be learned gradually by the pupil in the only way they can be learned—by actual prac: ice. During his period under articles the pupil can, in London, attend the courses of lectures held by the Law Societ;, or those held in the various colleges of the London University. There are also law classes held in many large provincial towns. Every articled clerk, with certain exceptions, is required to pass the intermediate exami nation, and he may present himself at any time after completing twelve months' service. The subjects are such elementary works on the laws of England as the Examination Committee of the Law Society may from time to time select. The fee for the first entry is £6, and for each renewal, after failure, Id. If a candidate fails to pass the intermediate within a year of completing one half of his term of service, he will probably be unable to take his final near the end of such term—that is the date of his qualification to practise will be postponed.
For the final examination the entrance fee is £10, and for each fresh trial, after failure, half that sum. Both the intermediate and final are held in London only, in the Hall of the Law Society, Chancery Lane. No candidate can be enrolled as a solicitor who has not passed the final examina tion, who is under twenty-one years of age, or who has not completed the prescribed term of service. \Then he has satisfied all these conditions he obtains an admission certificate, which has to be impressed with the revenue stamp of £(25. A payment of £5 has to be made to the Law Society, and the certificate must be sent to the Master of the Rolls for his signature. When the document has been duly signed, the applicant's name is entered on the roll of solicitors.