Current Education and Training Requirements

By 1980, legal education comprised a law degree, a one-year vocational course for either solicitors or barristers and a period of training. This was two-year articles for solicitors or one-year pupillage for barristers.

A. The Partnership Model

Compulsory education and training for lawyers currently has four stages. These are Initial stage, the Vocational stage, the Training stage and Continuing Professional Development (CPD), which continues after qualification. The initial stage comprises a three-year full-time law degree or a non-law degree followed by a one-year ‘conversion course’, called a graduate diploma in law. Alternatively entrants can qualify as a fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives and then take the solicitors’ vocational course. The vocational stage is a one-year full-time course, followed by a period of work-based learning under the guidance of an approved practitioner.²⁵

²² M Partington, ‘Academic Lawyers and “Legal Practice” in Britain: A Preliminary Reappraisal’ (1988) 15 Journal of Law and Society 374.

²³ The Hon Mr Justice Ormrod (chair), Report of the Committee on Legal Education (Cmnd 4595, 1971) (the Ormrod Report).

²⁴ PA Thomas and GM Mungham, ‘English Legal Education: A Commentary on the Ormrod Report’ (1972) 7(1) Valparaiso Law Review 87, at 89.

²⁵ See ch 16: ‘Employment’.

The structure provides progression from theory to practice, dividing delivery phases between universities (the initial or academic stage) and practitioners (the vocational stage). This is known as the ‘partnership model’ of professional preparation.^[861] The model envisages that one of three modes of learning, inquiry, instruction and perfor­mance, dominates each stage.^[862] Inquiry is the province of the academy, instruction the province of the professional school and performance, including the development of skills in a practical context, that of the employer.

B. The Initial Stage

i. Law Degrees and Conversion Courses

The core of a law degree that qualifies a holder to progress to the vocational stage (a qualifying degree) was traditionally agreed between the professional bodies and the collective representation of the University Law Schools. In its earlier incarna­tions it was known as the ‘joint announcement’ and described the outcomes achieved and material covered in undergraduate degrees.^[863] Only students successfully passing a qualifying degree could enrol on a vocational course. The current version, a joint statement, describes the kinds of knowledge and general transferable skills required.^[864] It also lists the core curriculum, the ‘Seven Foundations of Legal Knowledge’, which must be passed.

The Seven Foundations fill approximately one half of a three year degree. The subjects are contracts, torts, crime, land law, equity and trusts, public law and European law. European law was added in 1995 in recognition of its importance in shaping domestic law. Otherwise, the core is extremely difficult to change because of the diverse interests involved. The balance of degree courses is typically made up of locally prescribed core courses, such as legal method, and optional subjects. Graduate Diploma students squeeze the core subject matter of a law degree into one academic year.

ii. Non-degree Routes

There are two routes to qualifying as a solicitor through the CILEx fellowship route and the CILEx membership route. Both begin with exams set and authorised by the CILEx. These are taken while working under the supervision of a solicitor or CILEx Fellow. At this point, CILEx students join Law and GDL graduates taking an LPC and training contract. The Legal Education and Training Review, which reported in 2013, recommended that more formal apprenticeship routes be available.

C. The Vocational Stage

i. Legal Practice Course

The LPC is currently divided into two stages.^[865] Stage 1 covers the essential practice areas of Business Law and Practice, Property Law and Practice, and Litigation, Professional Conduct and Regulation, Taxation, and Wills and Administration of Estates. Stage 2 is made up of three vocational electives and, having passed Stage 1, students can delay taking it if they wish. Providers are authorised to offer Stage 1, Stage 2 or both. The so-called ‘legal skills’, Practical Legal Research, Writing, Drafting, Interviewing and Advising, and Advocacy, must be demonstrated in both parts of the course.

The course is currently defined by the outcomes students are expected to achieve. These include researching and applying knowledge of the law, identifying clients’ objectives and different means of achieving those objectives in the light of financial, commercial and personal priorities and constraints and the costs, benefits and risks involved in transactions or courses of action. They are required to understand the key ethical requirements contained in the SRA Principles of Regulation and Code of Conduct, understand where these may impact and be able to apply them in context. They must also reflect on their learning and identify their learning needs.

On completion of Stage 1, students should be able to identify and act in accordance with the core duties of professional conduct and professional ethics which are relevant to the course. The relevant area, Professional Conduct and Regulation, comprises Outcomes-Focused Regulation and the 10 principles of the Code of Conduct, Money Laundering, Financial Services and Solicitors’ Accounts. Providers are expected to demonstrate that at least 8 per cent of students’ notional learning hours relate to Professional Conduct and Regulation. Notional learning hours include all the hours a student may expect to devote to a course.

Providers are given flexibility in assessment subject to some requirements.^[866] For example, Business Law and Practice, Property Law and Practice and Litigation must all be assessed by a practice assessment lasting a minimum of three hours. Professional Conduct and Regulation must be assessed by a discrete assessment last­ing for a minimum of two hours. It must also be assessed within each of the three core practice assessments, with at least 5 per cent of the marks required to be allocated to Professional Conduct and Regulation. The marks for these assessments are not aggregated. Students must pass the discrete assessment in Professional Conduct and Regulation in order to pass the subject.

ii. Bar Professional Training Course

The current course for intending barristers is the Bar Professional Training Course. This introduces students to the core skills labelled Case Work, Legal Research, General Written Skills, Opinion-writing, Interpersonal Skills, Conference Skills (interviewing clients), Resolution of Disputes Out of Court and Advocacy. These are often taught in the context of the main areas of knowledge: Civil Litigation and Remedies, Criminal Litigation and Sentencing, Evidence and Professional Ethics together with two optional subjects.

Students sit online tests in Civil Litigation, Evidence and Remedies, Criminal Litigation, Evidence and Sentencing and Professional Ethics. These are set by a Central Examinations Board composed of experienced legal practitioners and academics appointed by the BSB. The tests comprise a short answer questions (SAQ) section and a multiple choice question (MCQ) section.

D. The Training Stage

The training stage is a required component of the qualification regime. It has always occupied a place between education and employment. At various points it has con­tained explicit educational or training requirements, but, generally, inclusion of these in the training stage is minimal. It is seen more as a process of learning by observing experienced practitioners and ‘learning by doing’ with their guidance. Both branches allow trainees to undertake work for payment. Since the 1970s, it was common for trainee solicitors to be salaried and for pupil barristers to receive fees when undertaking low level advocacy. The training stage is dealt with in more detail in chapter sixteen, ‘Employment’.

IV.