Have stakeholders been short-sighted on legal education and training reform?

19 Mar 2014|News|Add your comment

A ccording to an ICM poll for the government, 44 per cent of businesses in the country plan to take on apprentices in the next five years, and a fifth of SMEs plan to take on one or more apprentices in the next 12 months alone.

In the legal services sector, the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) both pledged last week to join the government's Trailblazer apprenticeship scheme, which aims to standardise apprenticeships across all industry sectors. The SRA and CILEx will be working together, alongside BPP, the University of Law and firms such as Eversheds and Irwin Mitchell to develop the standards for Apprentice Trainee Solicitor and Apprentice Trainee Lawyer. But how these new training models will compare with the two apprenticeship frameworks, which already lead to qualification as a chartered legal executive, remain to be seen. Solicitors who qualify through Trailblazer will have to demonstrate to the SRA that they meet 'the same standards as anyone who has come through more traditional paths to qualification'. For many observers, however, the question is: what will be the value of the new framework when CILEx members are already teetering on the verge of full practice rights in conveyancing and probate placing them on an 'equal footing with other legal professionals'.

DIVERSE PROFESSION

The SRA's involvement in Trailblazer will serve the regulator's approach to diversity, and help it deliver its regulatory obligations in relation to an 'independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession'

There are concerns, however, that while regulators concentrate their efforts on developing entrance to the profession at apprentice level in the pursuit of diversity, the traditional route to
qualification remains at risk of uniformity as ever.

'There is increasing evidence being reported that diversity in the legal profession is getting worse rather than better,' says Peter Todd, partner and training principal of Hodge Jones and Allen. 'Given the recent changes to legal aid and the funding available to support students, this is not at all surprising. In particular, there seem to be fewer students from lower economic backgrounds being able to access the profession.'

Camilla Graham Wood, solicitor at legal aid firm Birnberg Peirce and committee member of the Young Legal Aid Lawyers, says many prospective solicitors are put at a financial disadvantage by the high price of the LPC '“ these days, it costs an average £12,000. 'There are numerous hurdles facing those who want to become solicitors and barristers. One of the key problems that has consistently failed to be addressed is the
cost of entry to the profession via the traditional route of university and the overpriced LPC,' she says.

SLIDING DOORS

Law undergraduates, LPC students and trainees are all now at a sliding doors moment. Their future prospects appear bleak '“ the number of training contracts fell by 10.5 per cent to 4,869 in 2012, compared with 5,441 in 2011. Statistics on 2013 are to arrive imminently, but if they reflect another year of financial instability, they will almost undoubtedly dampen any positive outlook.

And now there lays the career route university students could have pursued: the clear-cut legal apprenticeship pathway that tackles expensive fees and the criticism that trainee solicitors lack commercial awareness and business acumen at their point of entry (see box).

Stuart Price, second-year trainee solicitor at Warners Solicitors and president of the West Kent and Weald Junior Lawyers Division, calls the surge in industry development and interest in apprenticeships positive and 'in line with a modern and diverse legal profession'. But he says it will increase the pressure on the growing number of LPC graduates seeking a training contract 'to whom legal apprenticeships were not available when they made
the decision to pursue a
legal career.'

This sense of resentment is not one that just the graduate side of the fence could nurture. Bally Atwal, partner and training manager at Smith Partnership says anything aiming to increase diversity in the profession is a good thing. But he also suggests that those who have pursued the route to law by an apprenticeship could 'quite possibly have a stigma attached' to them compared with LPC graduates, although the distinction between trainees and their paralegal or apprentice counterparts would not be
as acute as 20 years ago.

SIGNIFICANT BARRIER

For Todd, the price of the LPC remains 'a significant barrier' to the profession. A subsequent poorly paid training contract also discourages students who do not have a surplus amount of finances at their disposal.

Graham Wood agrees: 'If there are other ways to ensure that the profession does not become less diverse then bring back the trainee minimum salary,' says Graham Wood. Her comments come after a report by the Black Solicitors Network last year that showed that 33 per cent of students from a minority ethnic background started a first degree in law '“ many of whom the report said were black '“ but that only 0.6 per cent of law firm partners were black and only 1 per cent were QCs.

The legal apprenticeship route will no doubt be at the forefront of legal education and training for many months to come, and it is likely that more firms will join the scheme, although which of the three '“ the CILEx path, the Trailblazer route and the Higher Apprenticeship in Legal Practice '“ will become the more popular option remains to be seen. However, by focusing on one area of legal training and investing the time and finance it undoubtedly deserves, other areas such as qualifying through university, remain in disarray. Combining the LLB with the LPC is an idea, and a reasonable one at that, but then the LLB itself would become vocational and lead to chaos through attempting to standardise law schools nationwide. Let us celebrate the good work that National Apprenticeship Week has contributed to the sector, but not forget that there is still much to be done. SJ

Legal News desk contact: editorial@solicitorsjournal.com|

DIVERSE PROFESSION

SLIDING DOORS

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