Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Unit 2 AS

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Explain the work of barristers and solicitors Explain the qualifications and training of barristers & solicitors Explain how to complain about barristers & solicitors Discuss the background of barristers & solicitors Discuss the future of the 2 professions & current reforms Discuss the role of other legal personnel within the English legal system Objectives

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Profession divided into two branches: barristers and solicitors: Barrister = consultant/specialist Solicitor = general practitioner Also paralegals - e.g. legal executives Introduction

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Approximately 100,000 (80% in private practice) Governing body – The Law Society – 2005 membership of the Law Society became voluntary Regulated by – Solicitors Regulation Authority Solicitors

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors What types of work do you think solicitors do ? Most work/income comes from commercial, conveyancing, family/matrimonial and probate work – 1985 solicitors lost monopoly on conveyancing work. Solicitors do almost all advocacy in the Magistrates Court. Solicitors

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Courts & Legal Services Act 1990 & Access to Justice Act 1999 : Solicitors now acquire full rights of audience when admitted to the roll, they will be able to exercise this right upon completion of extra training Solicitors

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Solicitors can form partnerships. Since 2001 – they can form Limited Liability Partnerships. Solicitors offices rang from huge firms to sole practitioners. Most law firms are small – 85% having 4 or fewer partners – 50% having only 1 partner. Average annual salary is £51,000. Solicitors

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Mostly graduate in Law (non-law do GDL). Graduate Diploma in Law. One-year vocational course (LPC). Two-year training contract - CPD thereafter. Can progress from Legal Exec. Solicitors: Qualifications & Training

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Complaints can be made in the following ways: Legal Complaints Service – set up in 2007 (replaced Consumer Complaints Service) the new body will be an independent complaints service. Legal Service Act 2007 – provides for the setting up of the Office for Legal Complaints – handle all complaints against ANY legal service provider. Legal Service Ombudsman – set up in 1990-final appeal regarding complaint against lawyers. Action for Negligence –Arthur JS Hall & Co v Simons (2000). Complaints Against Solicitors

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Approximately 14,000. Known collectively as the Bar Governing body – Bar Council Bar Standards Board – responsible for regulating the Bar Main role - advocacy (presenting case in court) Also pre-trial work, ‘opinions’ (considered assessment of case), and conferences with solicitors/clients Barristers

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Barristers must be self employed – share offices called chambers – role of the clerk. Some barristers work for law centres, Government, private industry etc – Direct access introduced, members of the public can now contact a barrister without going through a solicitor. ‘Cab Rank’ rule. Barristers

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Mostly graduate profession (non-law graduates must do CPE). One-year Bar Professional Training Course(BPTC). One-year pupillage and join one of the 4 Inns of Court. Once qualified, practice from Chambers + undertake CPD. Remain ‘junior’ unless made ‘QC’ – eligible after 10 years in practice – Bar Council & Law Society appoints.‘QC’ Is QC status a reliable indicator of excellent and expertise? Barristers: Qualifications & Training

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Barristers no longer immune from liability for negligence work in court – Rondel v Worsley overruled by Arthur JS Hall v Simons (2000). However see - Moy v Pettman Smith (2005) – lenient treatment of a barrister by the House of Lords. Independent Complaints Commissioner. Professional Conduct and Complaints Committee. Legal Services Ombudsman. Complaints Against Barristers

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Both barristers and solicitors are eligible for appointment to all judicial posts, provided they have the necessary experience. Promotion to the Judiciary

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Mainly middle class. Women/ethnic minorities have been under-represented. 41% of all solicitors now women. 32% of barristers are women. However, Higher reaches still dominated by white males. Access may be improving but still discrimination - e.g. male assistant solicitors earn average of £13,000 p.a. more than female (1998 Law Society Stats). Backround of Barristers & Solicitors

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Ethnic minorities – % of solicitors from ethnic minorities – ethnic minorities made up 11% of practicing barristers. Solicitors Regulation Authority –aiming to broaden access to the profession – 2005 paper, Qualifying as a solicitor – a framework for the future & 2006 paper, A new framework for work based learning. Backround of Barristers & Solicitors

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Timeline: 1990 – Courts & Legal Services Act 1992 – Solicitor-advocates introduced 1999 – Access to Justice Act 2004 – Clementi report 2007 – Legal Services Act Recent moves Towards Fusion

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors What arguments can you think of for…. Some reduction in costs? Cut down on inefficiency and duplication of work? No other country divides its legal profession in two? Arguments For and Against Fusion

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors What arguments can you think of against…. Possible decline in access to specialists? Fusion would lead in a fall in the quality of advocacy? More difficult to make judicial appointments? Cab rank rule would be lost? Arguments For and Against Fusion

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Sir David Clementi’s report 2004, Review of the regulatory framework for legal services in England and Wales. White paper followed – The Future of Legal Services – Putting Consumers First. Key reforms now in The Legal Services Act The Future

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Legal Services Board to be established. Legal disciplinary practices. Multi-disciplinary partnerships. Other alternative business structures – allowed for in the Legal Services Act Office for Legal Complaints. The Future

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Perform professional work under solicitors - tend to specialise e.g. conveyancing. Can go on to qualify as a solicitor. Governing body - Institute of Legal Executives.Institute of Legal Executives Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 – legal executives to be given right to apply for junior judicial appointments. Legal Executives

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Licensed conveyancers Courts & Legal Services Act 1990 – abolished solicitor's monopoly on conveyancing Other Legal Personnel

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors Useful Websites

Law LA2: Personnel: Barristers & Solicitors 1.Define the following terms: Law Society; conveyancing; rights of audience; solicitor advocate; pupillage and Queen’s Counsel 2.How many solicitors are there? 3.Following the AJA 1999, what rights of audience do solicitors have? 4.What are Legal disciplinary practices? 5.What are Multi-disciplinary partnerships? Test Yourself