Louise - and that’s not her real name - is not going to become a solicitor after all. She gave it a good try, the law undergraduate says, but it wasn’t to be.

Louise says that when she started her law degree, she really wanted to be a solicitor: it’s a great job, one that can make a real difference to people’s lives, and she is not afraid of hard work. But she also wants a life outside the hard work, and the writing on the wall, it seems to her, is that the legal profession and a meaningful personal life can never be balanced.

By way of illustration, Louise describes a visit to a ‘big City firm’ organised by the course tutors, when she had a discreet chat with some of the trainees. They told her they often worked until 8pm or later in an effort to impress the partners and be kept on upon qualification.

It means you can’t make plans with your friends, they said, because you are always refusing invitations or cancelling at the last moment. And if you commute any distance, then for half the year you’ll never see your home in daylight on weekdays.

Louise goes on to tell me about a friend who works during holidays and, in his spare time, at a local law firm. He is not paid, but then he lives at home with his parents and can walk to work - so that’s OK, then.

The firm might give him a training contact one day, the partners have told him. There is no guarantee, but it is that ‘might’ that keeps him returning to the unpaid work that many would call exploitation.

Louise did genuinely try hard to make a go of the law, she says, but her resolve was eroded by the constant grind of competition.

Despite working at Citizens’ Advice to give her CV more credibility, for instance, she was unable even to secure a summer placement during the vacation.

Most of her friends couldn’t secure a placement either, including the one who works part-time at a legal advice centre and is tipped to get a first class degree. If you can’t even get a summer placement, Louise asks, then what chance a training contract?

And before she begins to sound defeatist, she demands: How do you try any harder? Louise answers her own question: the application form expects you to be doing brilliantly in your law degree while also captaining a sports team, gaining legal experience at a law centre and winning a Nobel Peace Prize in some worthy cause.

Louise is now making a career change into tax advice. ‘No big debts from funding the LPC,’ she says, ‘but it’s a shame I can’t use my love of the law’.

Evelyn - that’s not her real name, either - also speaks to me. She left the law last summer after three years working as a paralegal while trying to secure a training contract.

‘I knew it was going to be tough,’ Evelyn says, ‘but in the end I couldn’t bear to reapply again and again. The law firm that I was working for kept telling me to follow the internal application procedure and then rejected me three times. How can I apply to another firm and explain why my employer of three years didn’t think I was good enough?’

Evelyn is presently retraining to work as a financial adviser.

So is it unadulterated doom and gloom, then? Not at all, as Emma Dickinson, a member of the executive committee of the Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) and an assistant solicitor at national firm Simpson Millar, writes:

‘While it is true that lawyers work hard and some solicitors work very long hours, the profession covers a diverse range of work practices. Not everyone will work in the City and potential junior lawyers should research what practice area and/or type of firm they want to work in. Medium-sized commercial firms, the high street, local government and the in-house sectors (to name but a few) have a better work/life balance.

‘Because of the oversupply of students, the market is increasingly competitive every year. It is therefore important that students research their goals thoroughly and are realistic, as well as achieve their academic potential, obtain as much relevant work experience as possible and build any unique selling points (including sports achievements) which makes their CV stand out from the crowd.

‘In brief, whilst the JLD would agree that finding a training contract and completing training as a solicitor is both difficult and competitive, it is an extremely rewarding career path to pursue. Those who are committed to a career in the law should not be dissuaded by the competition - if you are dedicated, well-informed and hard working you will succeed in your goals.’