all these months of applying and I only just clocked that it's called a TC in part because of the actual contact that's signed between you and the firm.... 🤦♀️
there's a longer history
Attorneys and Solicitors Act 1728
After 1 Decem. 1730. none to act as an Attorney unless he has served a Clerkship, and been admitted.
That from and after the first Day of December one thousand seven hundred and thirty, no Person, who shall not before the said first Day of December have been sworn, admitted and inrolled, pursuant to the Directions of this Act, shall be permitted to Act as an Attorney, or to sue out any Writ or Process, or to commence, carry on or defend any Action or Actions, or any Proceedings, either before or after Judgement obtained, in the Name or Names of any other Person or Persons in any of the Courts of Law aforesaid, unless such Person shall have been bound, by Contract in Writing, to serve as a Clerk for and during the Space of five Years, to an Attorney duly and legally sworn and admitted, as herein before is directed, in some or one of the Courts herein before mentioned; and that such Person, for and during the said Term of five Years, shall have continued in such Service, and also unless such Person, after the Expiration of the said Term of five Years, shall be examined, sworn, admitted and inrolled, in the same Manner as the Persons, who shall be admitted Attornies of the said Courts, are herein before required to be examine, sworn, admitted and inrolled.
I looked one up:
Father paid £200 in 1801 (~£13k), inclusive of food and board, but not clothes to Augustus Hamet, a solicitor.
His son was to serve for six years (unpaid) as an articled clerk to Hamet, then become admitted as a solicitor
Son is to be instructed in law by Hamet, and not be transferred/sold to other parties.
If Hamet died before six years, his estate was required to repay proportion of the £200.
The agreement was indented, which meant cut into two halfs in serrated pattern, to be kept by the two parties to guard against forgery, this is more generally called an "indenture of apprenticeship" (an articled clerk was simply a specific form of apprentice, although it was usual to refer to "articles of clerkship" for solicitors & notaries, and indentures of apprenticeships more generally).
The 'articles' referred to in the term "articled clerk" are the terms of the contract, and it was thus sometimes referred to as a "contract of clerkship".
The articles/contract were eventually regulated by the Law Society under the various Solicitors Acts. In the 1990 Training Regulations made under s 2 of the Solicitors Act 1974, the Law Society changed the name from 'Articles' to 'Training Contract'
Under the SRA's old training regulations, solicitors qualified under a TC.
These regulations no longer apply, except for LPC candidates, and going forward it's all QWE.
Unlike LPC, there is no requirement for training, and it's instead a matter of certifying that you have developed the relevant competences:
https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/authorisation-individuals-regulations/#reg-2
This can be done by working as a paralegal.
A training contract is specifically a contract of apprenticeship, i.e. an apprenticeship at common law, as in centuries gone by.
You can also become a solicitor under a six year apprenticeship agreement as an approved English apprenticeship under the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009.
An approved English apprenticeship can be terminated early. However, a common law apprenticeship remains governed by centuries-old law. An apprenticeship contract is for the purpose of training, and if the employer breaches it by terminating it before the two years is up, they are liable to pay damages both for the remainder of the contract, AND for future employment prospects.
https://www.irwinmitchell.com/news-...enticeship-contracts-six-traps-for-the-unwary.
Therefore the training contract is both a contract for training and hence a common-law apprenticeship, and a contract of employment, whereas a paralegal would work under a contract of employment only. Firms can take advantage of this flexibility (at the expense of trainees) by training paralegals without giving them a training contract and avoiding the common law apprenticeship liabilities. Even though the SRA no longer regulate TCs (except for legacy LPC candidates), they still provide not only greater prestige for future solicitors than QWE other-than-through-a-TC, but also virtually cast iron certainty to qualify as a solicitor from the date of signature.
