Editor's blog | In Bruges

Lord Neuberger’s Upjohn Lecture last week was a rousing cry for an independent legal profession protecting the interest of the public, defending democracy and upholding the rule of law. It would be difficult to disagree. But in the context of a barely veiled attack on the work of the Legal Education and Training Review, his words took an unexpectedly conservative ring.

The Supreme Court’s new president, otherwise regarded as a progressive judge, is taking exception with the premise in the LETR that the present legal education system is not fit for purpose and needs reforming. Along the way he is taking a shot at LSB chair David Edmonds, accusing him of making the suggestion in the first place and expecting radical change.

By taking an overly consumerist stance, the LETR risks turning the profession into a trade, removed from its raison d’être as “an essential element of any democratic society committed to the rule of law”.

The legal profession, he warned, could suffer the same fate as the Belgian city of Bruges: once the capital of Flanders, it went into irreversible economic decline after the port authorities did nothing to prevent the river on which it is sited from silting up. As far as the legal services sector was concerned, he said, there was no evidence of professional congestion. If anything, embarking on such a radical shake up would leave the sector silting up its own harbour.

On the face of it, this was a surprisingly barbed assault on a much-needed initiative, one that you would expect from the Bar but which is much less likely to resonate with solicitors, particularly the younger generation. At a time of rising college fees, perilous drop in training contracts, reduced career prospects and ABS threats, the last thing solicitors want is to shore up the old order for the sake of upholding lofty values. If the current system is leaving hundreds of graduates unable to pay their debts and unable to secure the jobs for which they trained, then the system is not working.

Various projects are already changing the way law is taught. This journal has covered initiatives such as the virtual environment of Ardcalloch or Law Without Walls. And various law colleges and law schools have started teaching ethics and legal business at undergraduate level. There are also several pro bono projects at undergraduate level too.

Interestingly, Lord Neuberger mentioned several of these initiatives. He even praised the CILEx model for non-graduates. It is just curious that he would rather see them as islands rather than see them together as a current that has started running through the system. Let's hope these differences are mere matters of semantics.