Trainee numbers didn't explode

We caused a bit of the fuss a couple of weeks ago when we published an article titled "Trainee Numbers Explode" with quotes from our Managing Director Kath Riley. Figures we had obtained from the SRA under a FoI request suggested Trainee Solicitor numbers bucked the trend of previous years and grew by 65% in 2014.

The revelation gained traction across social networks and was picked up by a lot of the trade press but the party was spoilt when we got a call from Max Harris, the chair of the Junior Lawyers Division of the Law Society. Max, an Associate Solicitor at Baker McKenzie in London was pretty confident that the figures were wrong even after we had presented him with what we had obtained from the SRA.

Turns out Max was right. In response to our original request the SRA had stated that "5,541 training contracts were registered in 2014, and 3,415 periods of recognised training entered into”. What they should have said - and the SRA subsequently admitted in an apology to us - was that "the figure of 5,541 represented the total number of trainees taken on in 2014".

Anyway no harm done. We got name checked in the Solicitors Journal who published the SRA's apology and retraction and Legal Futures also ran the story although we were disappointed that we didn't get a mention from the SRA executive director Richard Collins when he said: “We are sorry for any confusion this has caused. We have spoken directly to the [recruitment] company about this to explain, apologise and correct the position. We are also taking this step to correct the position publicly and we hope this clarifies the matter.” 

Now...about that egg on the face of our MD.