I recently had the dubious pleasure of attending a debate on the future of legal education at UCL. The event was entitled 'Do lawyers need to be scholars?' and was loosely based around the future of legal education and the continuing Legal Education and Training Review. It was certainly an esteemed panel, but unfortunately it was predominantly a panel of experienced academics. The opportunity to engage with those who were going through the process of legal education or with those who had just completed their academic and post-graduate experience was cleverly avoided or intentionally ignored by the academic (of course) chair. Sadly, the 'debate' didn't really get off the ground. It was more a series of generally well-intentioned statements, such as going back to the '3 Rs of law', namely research, writing and reasoning and introducing an additional two Es: ethics and economics.
Magnus Hassett, James Noble and Amy France consider break clauses and vacant possession, uncompleted leases, superior landlord's consent and occupiers' liability
In the new world of ABS, the knowledge and expertise of barristers isn't enough to compete; what's needed is clear leadership from visionaries with a more corporate mindset, says Emma Waddingham
The legal profession must continue to find new ways to innovate and adapt, to meet the many challenges – and opportunities – that lie ahead, says Peter Lodder QC
The draft National Planning Policy Framework's less prescriptive form of national policy and conspicuous lack of clarity with regard to sustainable development means specialist legal advice will be ever more critical, say Gregory Jones QC and Isabella Tafur
What a relief for the profession. Judging by the number of applications for law courses, its future is safe. Graduate interest in law is still measured in thousands this year, with 13,139 applications, according to UCAS's latest figures. That's fewer than last year, for sure, which recorded 13,858 applications for law courses, but the drop is only 5.2 per cent – much better than the 7.9 per cent average across all subjects combined.
