Do you consider the current system of legal education and training can provide the lawyers this country needs?

Written by Lorna Harris (AS Law student).

Introduction to the legal system
   This essay is being written, primarily to discover whether the current system of legal education and training is able to produce the kind of lawyers that we as a country need. To do this we must look into the complex stages of the legal training system, before making a judgement as to whether the system is providing the skilled professionals that the legal industry requires.

     Academically, lawyers all do the same course. A law degree is a key stepping stone to becoming a lawyer. Either that or a post graduate in a non-law degree can opt to do a one year common professional examination.  Both the Law degree and the CPE, teach the same thing, the only difference between the two is that the Law degree takes three years and it is possible to learn the core subjects with a selection of other legal subjects, whereas the CPE takes a year but only teaches the core subjects. The core subjects that all lawyers have to learn, being contract, tort, constitutional, property and criminal law.  These subjects are an important grounding in the subject of law, by learning these it is setting them up to become skilled professionals in the industry.

   The advantages of the academic training are that it introduces the students to the legal profession. It also provides students with important and complex knowledge, which ultimately will help them to succeed. However, there are disadvantages to the academic training. The main one being the cost of the training. Under the current system of university education, a degree costs £3000 per year. So for someone taking a law degree that’s £9000 over three years, that is without taking into consideration the costs of living and resources such as books.

   Currently in the England and Wales, there are two types of Lawyers; barristers and solicitors. Although they go through the same academic courses, this is where there training as one unit stops.  Because of the way the training works, Solicitors are more likely to be earning a paid wage, sooner after there degree, this as well as some more facts that will be examined further on in this essay, is why more university graduates decide to take the route of solicitor.
This means that the system, which provides high academic levels of lawyers, is more efficient at providing Solicitors. This could be seen as a flaw in the system, as lawyers should be both barristers and solicitors and currently it is producing more solicitors.

Solicitors
    Within England and Wales there are over 90,000 Solicitors practising. The argument for the training of more solicitors, could be as previously mentioned the cost of academic education in the legal industry, pushing students into soliciting as it provides a wage much sooner than is likely for a barrister. However, there are other arguments; for example, solicitors are now more able to do jobs that would have previously been, only done by barristers, because of this a point that less barristers are needed in the current legal system, and therefore the current system is providing exactly what this country needs. Another argument being that a lot of people starting out in then profession feel a regular wage is safer. A solicitor would work for a firm, therefore being are an employee, whereas a barrister is self employed so if no work is coming in they don’t get paid. This is a negative prospect to a student who is in debt. The security of working for a firm can be a more sensible prospect.

  The vocational part of training for solicitors is called the Legal Practise Course. The one year course costs around £7000, and teaches practical skills such as will making, drafting documents, and interview techniques.
The positives aspects of this course is that it provides a much more hands on approach to the legal profession, than was currently experienced at university. The course is vibrant and interesting and the practical skills learnt could be directly transferred over to working with a firm. The negative aspect of this course is as before the cost. The cost of the course is a deterrent for bright and able minded students that wish to enter into the legal profession. This could mean that students which have the potential to being fantastic solicitors are unable to finish the qualification process and therefore, the current system is depriving the country of a potentially amazing solicitor.

    The final part of training for a solicitor is the Two-year training contract; this is a vital part of the training. In the two years of training, the trainee solicitors will be able to learn the in-depth detail of the legal profession within a firm. This is important for the future as they will eventually have to join a firm, to practise as a solicitor. The advantages to the training contracts are numerous, as well as the obvious advantage of the learning skills of the trade, solicitors are also paid a wage for there time at the firm. Also some firms decide to employ the trainee full time, once they become fully qualified. The practical training helps initiate some of the most qualified solicitors into the legal profession.
There are some disadvantages to the system though, as is seen through-out this essay there are more people training to become a solicitor than there are people to become barristers. This means that there is vast competition to get the best training contracts, or just to get a training contract at all, as you need it to become a solicitor. Moreover, there are students who are placed with small high street firms, which don’t pay as much as a large firm and which often use the trainees as nothing more than a glorified mail room worker,  because of this the training is not as informative or useful. However, there are even some people who can’t even find training contracts at all, and because of this have to change professions, until a placement becomes available.  This is a severe blow to a student who has fulfilled all other parts of training only to be knocked back at the last hurdle, once again this flaw in the system could be stopping bright students having a prosperous career.

There is an alternative route to becoming a solicitor which is seen as a longer but more cost effective route. The ILEX training is a series of course which you work upon in succession, and once completing these courses you take examinations. Often people working in a firm as a legal secretary will be offered the chance by their firm to take ILEX exams, and will be subsidised by the company. Once you complete all the ILEX exam you are classified as a Legal Executive, or you can go on to take the LPC and complete a training contract, to become a solicitor. This is a fantastic way of the Legal Education System to provide solicitors, as practically anyone could train, opening the legal profession to a multitude of backgrounds.

Barristers
     Within England and Wales there are just over 14,000 barristers working. As mentioned before, in recent years there has been less of a need for a barristers as solicitors can fulfil most of the jobs that barristers once specialised in, for example advocacy, this solicitors can do once they apply and train for a certificate of advocacy. Because of this there as been less of an uptake for becoming a barrister in the current system.
    The vocational training for a barrister also lasts one year, costing around £9000. It is made up of practical skills which will be relevant for a barrister such as advocacy and cliental relations. The training is of course quite hands on and teaches the student a lot in preparation for becoming a barrister. The main disadvantage is the cost. It deters students from becoming barristers which in the long run is failing the system because the result is the only barristers there are in this country are the ones who can afford the education.
This alienates people as it is seen that most barristers are the stuck up middle classes. Because the system of legal education and training creates this problem we could argue that it neglects to provide a selection of barristers which are representative of the society.
   The practical part of the training involves a training called pupilage. Similar to the solicitors training contract, a pupilage is a set of two 6 month blocks, in the first block a barrister must shadow a qualified barrister to learn the skills in detail. Then in the second block of 6 months, the trainee barrister is able to work more closely with cases and in some cases take on small cases. This is an excellent way of training as it provides fantastic work experience and helps the trainee get a feel of how the court system works.
The disadvantages to this system of training, is a mirror of the problems trainee solicitors face. Although the number of students looking for a pupilage is less, there is also less barristers for students to work for, and there lies the problem, the best pupilage positions are quickly filled and it leaves some trainees without a pupilage.

Changes to the system
    Michael Zander is a key voice looking to improve the system. He argues that Law degrees should be more practical from the start. By including preliminary training in areas in drafting documents and developing interview skills, it should help reduce the gap between educational and vocational training. Zander also argues that the pupilage and training contracts can vary in quality and something should be done to address this issue for the immediate future.  Zander likes the idea of integrated training like that taken by medical training.
    A report by the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Committee (ACLEC) in 1996 suggested that the two branches of lawyers should no longer have separate training programs at the post graduate stage. Instead all students should undertake a Professional Legal Studies course, lasting 18 weeks; this would help a student decide which branch of the legal profession to take up. In the current system, students are forced to choose very early on as they have to apply to either the LPC or the BVC. The proposal of the Professional Legal
Studies course is will mean that students have adequate time to decide, before going on to do either one of the vocational course for there chosen branch of the legal system.
    Another flaw that should be changed is the costing. Charter 88, the independent campaign for a modern and fair democracy in the UK*, argue that students should be funded through-out their legal training – therefore opening up the legal profession to a variety of backgrounds, regardless of their financial situation.

Conclusion
Although there are things within the system of legal education and training that could be updated, it is important to remember that a lot of highly qualified lawyers have come out of the current system. For example, Cherie Booth is a renowned QC dealing in human rights law and some public law*. She was successfully trained and is now an important and influential Queen’s Counsel member.
    However it is important to remember that people such as QC Cherie Booth didn’t have to pay for there education, and it is said that Ms Booth made the comment “if I hadn’t had the funding from the state to go to university I would have worked in a shop” taken from an article in the “Voice of the Mirror” on the 8th November 2005. She Claims that the bar is excluding bright students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.
  A counter acting point to this argument is that should the funding be made available for law students, not only would other degree students feel it was discriminatory, it would also make more people rush to join the law degree courses; which are currently oversubscribed as they are. This in theory means that universities will have to either turn students away for no specific reason other than there is no more places, or has classes which are too big to teach efficiently meaning the standard of teaching will be greatly reduced.
    Also students that are not paying to learn the subject will be less inclined to display any effort for the subject. Free tuition could cause the lack of motivation within the Legal education and training system.

 It is fair to say that under the current system there have been sufficient lawyers provided for the country, even if the system is seen as being overpopulated by the middle
classes. Surely that would only add an incentive to becoming a Lawyer from a lesser privileged background. The fees are able to define the people that wish, with a passion to pursue a career in law, with those who aren’t as keen.
    It is because of these points that I would agree that the current system is adequate in providing the lawyers that this country needs.

Information taken from “the legal profession” by Jacqueline Martin. 
* Information taken from www.charter88.org.uk
Other facts found on the “Legal Profession” Lecture slide sheet.