The notion of the apprentice dates back to antiquity, with religious temples managed along hierarchical processes which stressed the relationship between master and pupil.

In mediaeval times, the craftsmen of the Trades Guilds were responsible for ensuring the skill and aptitude of newcomers, initiating them into society and bringing them up in ways of godliness. Tools and work methods were prescribed by the Guild. A master would accept no more apprentices than he could train.

Upon the completion of training, a student would not necessarily become a master immediately. An interim period of indeterminate length might ensue, in which the newly-qualified artisan would work for a day's wages, as a journeyman. These ancient professional principles all have their counterparts in modern professional practice.

By the Middle Ages, universities had adopted a similar system with a master's degree, which has the meaning of a degree taught by a master as well as the process by which the student becomes one. The lawyer of the Middle Ages served an apprenticeship by working in close association with a master of the profession. The practice persists in jurisdictions which base their legal systems on the English model.

For a fixed period -- in the 1960s, six years was the standard term -- a school-leaver was bound by a legal agreement to work exclusively for the solicitor to whom he was articled. In return, the lawyer agreed to school the student and make it possible for him to gain the necessary training and ethical understanding, confirmed by examination, to enable him to practise law.

For the greater part of the 20th Century, an articled clerk paid his master an annual fee for the privilege of serving articles. Articles were available to anyone whose family could pay for the minimal costs of tuition and the chance to earn the licence to practise.

The term `articles' has fallen foul of political correctness in certain corners of the world. Blaming word rather than deed, society has renamed the articled clerk a student lawyer.

To those who served articles in any profession in the middle of the 20th Century, the period of indenture led, with a degree of certainty and the accumulation of acceptable examination results, to a professional career.

Eventually, the premium paid by articled clerks or their families was phased out, and by the end of the 1960s, clerks were receiving a few hundred pounds a year towards the cost of living.

Today's students are paid a small salary, with the best in Bermuda often the beneficiaries of significant scholarship largesse on the part of Bermuda Inc.

N.B.

This is the exact same Law Matters supplement that ran in The Royal Gazette on 20th September, 2000. However do the printing problems that affected the quality of the print, it was pulled from the circulation and did not appear again until the 9th October, 2000.