The Training of Town Clerks
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1953.tb01752.x |
| Author | Bryan Keith‐Lucas |
| Date | 01 March 1953 |
| Published date | 01 March 1953 |
The Training
of
Town
Clerks
BY BRYAN KEITH-LUCAS
Mr.
Keith-Lucas,
now
Senior Lecturer
in
Local Government in the
University
of
Oxford, has served as an Assistant Solicitor with Kensington
and Nottingham Corporations.
F
English Local Government is to play the part
it
should in the life of the
I
nation, it is essential not only that the most suitable people should be
attracted to serve as councillors, but also that the standard of the officers
should be maintained at the highest possible level. Much has been done in
recent years to improve the conditions and training of the main body of local
government officers, but none the less there is reason to suggest that the
present methods of recruitment and training of future Town Clerks are in
need of reconsideration. The position is much the same in the case of Clerks
of County Councils and the larger District Councils.
In
1934
the Hadow Committee expressed the opinion that Town Clerks
should be trained as administrators, rather than as lawyers. Since that time
Local Authorities throughout the country have consistently ignored this
advice, and the position remains as
it
was before, that the larger and middle-
sized authorities will appoint none but solicitors as their principal adminis-
trative officers
;
it must therefore be accepted that qualification as a solicitor
is necessary for any young man who aspires to become a Town Clerk.
The usual steps in such a career begin with Articles under a solicitor
Town Clerk, followed by appointment as an Assistant Solicitor, often with
some Authority other than that with which the Articles have been served.
In order to gain more rapid promotion than may be available under one
authority, Assistant Solicitors commonly move from town to town, and in due
course rise to be Deputy Town Clerks and ultimately to be Town Clerks.
In the same way they may become Clerk of a County Council or of a District
Council. Some men enter the Local Government service after taking articles
with solicitors in private practice, but they are a minority, and they often find
themselves at some disadvantage in competing with those whose experience
has been entirely
in
Local Government.
Thus today
no
man can become a Town Clerk (except in some of the
smaller boroughs) unless he is a solicitor
;
and
in
order to become a solicitor
he must serve for five years in articles (three years for graduates) as
a
pupil in
the office of a practising solicitor. During this time he is commonly paid no
salary, and it
is
usual for him to pay a premium to his principal (the solicitor
to whom he is articled). The amount of this varies, but articles under a Town
Clerk may cost as much as
E300,
or, in exceptional cases,
E500.
In addition
he has to pass the Law Society’s examinations before he can be admitted as
a solicitor. There are however some exceptions to these rules-some Town
Clerks give articles to members of their staff and ask no premium, and
a
few
authorities pay the articled clerks a small wage.
While this system has continued unaltered for many years, there have
been fundamental changes in the educational and social conditions of the
country. The Education Act,
1944,
has meant that, to
a
much greater extent
than before, the ablest boys from the Grammar Schools can now go on to
13
To continue reading
Request your trial