ABSTRACT
Solicitors constitute an elite professional group with high status, substantial earning potential and a key role in applying and administering the law. The process by which individuals enter such a group is of considerable practical and ideological importance. The most obvious concern relates to the degree to which selection into the profession is meritocratic. While it raises issues of fairness and equal opportunities, the process by which people enter the profession has implications which go far beyond the ‘rights’ of individual applicants.
