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While the right financial mushrooms, reductions in legal aid threaten basic access to the system and the future of the high street lawyers

From his office on the seventh floor in Canary Wharf, Alan Mak examines the citadels of corporate finance. The towers, which extends from the city, containing not only financial companies, but which becomes a successful export: Colombia. Legal Services

company Carita brother Thomas, however, is in a red brick building next to Sheffield magistrates court. She sees clients in police stations and helps resist eviction. His legal aid work will be affected by cuts in public funding which will come into force in April.

These two young lawyers, qualified for four years, represent the extremes of the profession - as traditional trade barriers, but the main street lawyers law against cutting price competition, lower costs and customers who can not afford to be represented.

Mak, 29, grew up in Madrid, where her family, originally from Hong Kong, had a corner store. He studied law at Cambridge University and worked briefly as a researcher for the Conservative MP Ed Vaizey, the culture minister today. He works in the legal acts and offers. "I love the intellectual challenge and the ability to work with businesses, governments and individuals of talent when they one of the largest transactions they have to do," he explains.

"London is already a global financial center, but it becomes a legal center and a center for dispute settlement. This is where some of the companies in the world's most successful companies are based. The world went to London because it is a global financial center, while the British legal profession is English law in the world. "

Mak started as an apprentice at Clifford Chance, a leading law firm by revenue in the world. It employs more than 3,000 lawyers. The experienced lawyers at Mak expect to earn at least ? 85,000 per year. Like many others in the city, provides a significant amount of time for free, or pro bono work for charities and good causes. "I wanted to work in the heart of the business and the society in which it was important to do well, but to do was just as important."

is president of the charity Magic Breakfast which offers a complimentary breakfast in 200 primary schools each day. He volunteered for the National Autistic Society and the prisoner on death row in the United States. "I come from a northern working class and ethnic minorities. For me, Clifford Chance is a platform to do good and do well. "

Thomas, 32, is a graduate in law from the University of Edinburgh. He spent a year working with VSO in Nepal. Howells is now working for a large law firm with offices across the North of England, and is part of the campaign committee advocates youth groups. "I mostly immigration and public law. But after April, legal aid is not available for many immigration cases, such as those based on the right to family life, and visa applications.

"Working on asylum and the traffic will still be available for legal aid, but I do not know how people will handle other types of cases. That a large number of immigration laws grief. is very complicated and many people do not have the means to pay for advice.

"No firm can survive in most legal assistance. For me, one of the hardest hit will be people with limited resources who are fighting deportation because of their right to life or family. Such cases can be very complex. "

Thomas earns ? 31,000 per year. "I can not think of a better job to do," she said. "There was never a time when I watch the whales. These are huge problems in the lives of these people. "

She believes that soon there will be fewer opportunities for those entering the profession. "We will lose a lot of talent in the area of ??legal aid and I wonder if I ever will be again. My clients need good lawyers in the future. Traditional view of lawyers and their training must change to support people of all backgrounds to enter the right for them to do this kind of work. "

"After selling his practice was his pension. Lawyers now worry about the arrival of the Co-op, which came on the market deregulated] [legal services and plans to hire 3,000 lawyers. "

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