‘Is £65,000 of debt worth it, when you have to fight for a job and your chances of being a partner/business owner are virtually nil with the introduction of ABSs?’

That was the bleak response of one web commenter to Gazette Online’s report last week of a record fall in applications for law degrees.

We now have compelling circumstantial evidence that the prospect of incurring eye-watering debts is deterring poorer students from further education. Suddenly, the deputy prime minister’s hectoring of the legal profession for not doing enough to foster social mobility appears very cynical indeed. Of course, that’s not the whole story. Other commentators point to an oversubscribed profession which has doubled in size in 20 years and is finally succumbing to the immutable laws of supply and demand. Regardless of where the blame lies, however, what is surely unarguable is that the profession is approaching a near 50-year peak of exclusivity as measured by socio-economic group.

A fortnight ago we carried a powerful comment piece arguing that the legal profession is badly served by systemic barriers to the development of a true ‘diversity of minds’. As the evidence mounts up that things are getting worse in this regard, not better, it is incumbent on those conducting the profession-wide education and training review to move this issue up their agenda