Education & Training

Articles

Law schools should be more realistic about graduate job prospects

Career advice centres are “really good at producing glossy brochures” and can talk about standard career options but don't provide enough individual personalised support for students pursuing a career in law, a senior charity executive has said.

Up for debate

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.

University challenged

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.

Law course applications fall to just above UK average

University applications to study law dropped 5.2 per cent with only 13,139 applicants this year compared with 13,858 last year.

Legal network first to unveil plan for stock market listing

A network of independent solicitors is the first legal advice provider to have announced plans for listing on the stock exchange.

New traineeship model addresses recruitment challenges

A new training contract model launched this week promises to help firms and candidates encountering recruitment difficulties in the current economic climate by matching recruiters and applicants in a more flexible framework.

Generation gap

The LPC equips young lawyers for the commercial world but leaves them without fully developed family law skills, says Marilyn Stowe as she despairs of her potential trainees

Singled out

The detention of children should always be the last resort – the courts should not treat young protestors differently, argues Sophie Khan