1. The Legal Education and Training Review research project
Jane Ching
Professor of Professional Legal Education
Nottingham Trent University UK
40 minutes plus questions.

2. England and Wales
I am going to talk about the first full review of legal education in England and Wales since 1971.
Equivalent to the Darrois Report in France or the ABA Task Force Report in the USA.
The legal systems and legal education are very different in Scotland and in Northern Ireland and the review did not consider them.
13 September 2018

3. Legal Professions in England and Wales
Regulated under the Legal Services Act 2007
Solicitor (120,000)
Barrister (15,300)
Chartered Legal Executive (7,500)
Patent Attorney
Licensed Conveyancer (1,100)
Notary (8
Registered Trade Mark Attorney (620
Costs Lawyer (400)
[some accountants]
Regulated separately
Claims Manager
Immigration Advisor
Not currently regulated
Paralegals
Will writers
There is a large number of different legal professions in England and Wales, some more specialist than others. The majority of the professions are regulated under the Legal Services Act 2007, which I will discuss later. Two specialist groups are regulated under separate legislation directly by the Ministry of Justice, and other groups are not formally regulated at all (although, like the will writers and paralegals, they may be numerous and they may have representative organisations).

4. Legal Professions in England and Wales
Regulated under the Legal Services Act 2007
Solicitor (120,000)
Barrister (15,300)
Chartered Legal Executive (7,500, but c 20,000 CILEx members)
Patent Attorney (1,700)
Licensed Conveyancer (1,100)
Notary (850)
Registered Trade Mark Attorney (620)
Costs Lawyer (400)
[some accountants]
Regulated separately
Claims Manager
Immigration Advisor
Not currently regulated
Paralegals
Will writers
This slide gives the relative numbers. The majority of regulated lawyers are solicitors, who do much of the transactional work, as well as work in litigation. Legal executives are a profession that is emerging – they used to be a form of paralegal, and many still work in support of solicitors in the same organisations – but they have just received consent form the government to set up in practice independently. Barristers are the specialist advocates, although as we will see, members of some of the other professions can also act as advocates. Patent and trade mark attorneys specialise in intellectual property. Licensed conveyancers specialise in property work. The limited number of notaries specialise in document drafting documents and international work. Costs lawyers specialise in work related to the expense of conducting litigation, which is a very complex area in our jurisdiction.

5. Legal Services Act 2007 The regulatory objectives
(a) protecting and promoting the public interest;
(b) supporting the constitutional principle of the rule of law;
(c) improving access to justice;
(d) protecting and promoting the interests of consumers;
(e) promoting competition in the provision of services within subsection (2);
(f) encouraging an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession;
(g) increasing public understanding of the citizen's legal rights and duties;
(h) promoting and maintaining adherence to the professional principles.
“reserved legal activity”
(a) the exercise of a right of audience;
(b) the conduct of litigation;
(c) reserved instrument activities;
(d) probate activities;
(e) notarial activities;
(f) the administration of oaths.
So, after many years of regulation under different provisions and different statues, the Legal Services Act 2007 sought to do two things: a) consolidate the regulation of legal services under an umbrella regulator (the Legal Services Board) and b) open up the possibility of other people or organisations being able to offer legal services. The objectives of the act are as you might expect. The reserved activities are those which only regulated lawyers can carry out. They are:
(a) the exercise of a right of audience – advocacy in court
(b) the conduct of litigation;
(c) reserved instrument activities – certain documents relating to property
(d) probate activities;
(e) notarial activities;
(f) the administration of oaths – creation of affidavits..

6. Who can do which reserved activity?
Advocacy
Barristers, solicitors, CILEx members, patent attorneys, registered trade mark attorneys, costs lawyers [may involve obtaining additional qualification]
Conveyancing (transfer of real estate)
Solicitors, CILEx members, licensed conveyancers, some notaries
Probate
Solicitors, CILEx members, some licensed conveyancers, some notaries, some accountants
Litigation
In-house barristers, solicitors, CILEx members, patent attorneys, registered trade mark attorneys, costs lawyers
But although some professions see themselves as specialist, over the years a considerable degree of overlap has emerged.

7. Different ways of training for different regulated professions …
And each profession had its own education system. Some are very proud of being graduate only professions. Others are very proud that their system provides access to people from a very wide range of backgrounds, including those who have just left school.
In the UK, the university “law degree” is an undergraduate degree, usually studied between the ages of 18 and 21. Although at present all law degrees are required to contain seven “foundation subjects” to satisfy two of the professions (solicitors and barristers) as a “qualifying law degree”; the law degree is not seen as only being a preparation for legal practice. Figures vary, and vary by university, but in some cases more than half of law graduates do not go into one of the regulated legal professions.
13 September 2018

8. (At least one) degree required and possible credit for a law degree
Based on a law degree
Solicitors (plus Legal Practice Course, plus training contract)
Barristers (plus Bar Professional Training Course, plus pupillage)
(At least one) degree required and possible credit for a law degree
Patent attorneys
Registered trade mark attorneys
Notaries
A degree not required (but possible credit for a law degree)
Chartered Legal Executive
Costs lawyer
Licensed conveyancer
Some of these qualifications were designed a long time ago (eg LPC = 1993) and different kinds of organisations are now offering reserved and unreserved legal services. So there might be a question about the extent to which the jobs, and the regulation, and the activities match up with the training. Some of the training routes allow you to take options to specialise, others are for very specialised professions, whilst others assume that at some level you need to have some kind of broad basic training in a range of subjects, either because that is necessary, or for consistency. In a similar way to the requirement that certain subjects have to be covered for a qualifying law degree.
13 September 2018

9. QUALIFICATION TRAINING CONTRACT LEGAL PRACTICE COURSE LAW DEGREE
However, the majority of lawyers are solicitors and this is their qualification framework. They must complete an undergraduate law degree (or a degree in another subject and a one year postgraduate course in law), followed by a year long vocational course called the Legal Practice Course. This has no direct equivalent in the USA or I thin in Turkey, but there are very similar courses in, for example, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. It focusses on procedure, and skills such as client interviewing, advocacy, legal drafting, professional ethics and so on. After that, a candidate has to obtain, and complete, a two year internship as a “trainee solicitor” before being able to qualify. There are many more places on the Legal Practice Course (which is self-funded for most students) than training contracts available in the market.
However, and this is also a factor for the review, as I move on, legal jobs have changed, and continue to change under the Legal Services Act. We now have accountancy firms with associated law firms; and supermarkets offering legal services.
LAW DEGREE
13 September 2018

10. The Legal Education and Training Review

11. Legal Education and Training Review research phase
Joint project of Bar Standards Board, ILEX Professional Standards, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Sector-wide review
Commenced in May 2011; reported in June 2013
Evidence-based approach
Independent research team from the universities of Warwick, London, Northumbria and Nottingham Trent
Bar Standards Board – regulatory body for barristers (trial advocates)
ILEX Professional Standards – regulatory body for legal executives
Solicitors Regulation Authority – regulatory body for solicitors

12. The LETR research questions
1. What are the skills/knowledge/experience currently required by the legal services sector?
2. What skills/knowledge/experience will be required by the legal services sector in 2020?
3. What kind of legal services education and training (LSET) system(s) will deliver the regulatory objectives of the Legal Services Act?
4. What kind of LSET system(s) will promote flexibility, social mobility and diversity?
5. What will be required to ensure the responsiveness of the LSET system to  emerging needs?
6. What scope is there to move towards sector-wide outcomes/activity-based regulation?
7. What need is there (if any) for extension of regulation to currently non-regulated groups?
Explain sector wide outcomes and activity based regulation

13. What the research team did
Read a lot of literature on regulation of legal education
Compared other jurisdictions and professions
Carried out three online surveys (the largest of which had 1,128 respondents)
Talked in focus groups and interviews to another 307 people (including practitioners, regulators, academics and students)
Did an experiment to find out what skills solicitors actually use in their work
Arising from literature review (chap 1, para 1.30):
persistently divergent views about the purposes of legal education and training, and lack of clear definition of education and training outcomes, particularly in respect of post-qualification workforce development;
neglect of regulation of education and training in the literature;
impact of structural factors (including resource constraints, information asymmetries, fragmentation of legal work, and proliferation of regulators and regulations) making it difficult to design and sustain a coherent network of pathways into and between the legal professions; 
the need for enhanced, genuine and continuing collaboration between education and training providers, practitioners and regulators, and the need therefore to consider how such collaboration may be designed into regulatory tools and structures for the future, together with input from consumers.
13 September 2018

14. Looked at context, content, systems and structures
Context: including new business models, new methods of delivery legal services, technology, international trends, competition between regulated and unregulated providers, changes in regulation
Content: what knowledge, skills and attributes do people need? Where are the gaps?
Systems and structures: what works? What creates barriers? Standards; access, progression and transfer, equality and diversity issues
Chapter 1, para 1.8 for explanation and example.
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15. Drew conclusions about
Quality
Professionalism and ethics
An appropriate baseline level of competence
Addressing “gaps” such as
Legal research and digital literacy
Communication skills (including writing and advocacy)
Commercial and social awareness
Management skills
Equality and diversity outcomes
Thinking about continuing competence
Continuing competence = CPD
13 September 2018

16. Drew conclusions about
Consistency and quality assurance
Assessing outcomes
Supervision and learning in the workplace
Specialist accreditations
CPD and continuing learning
Cost of training
Apprenticeships
Blending work and study differently
Accrediting work in different environments
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17. Drew conclusions about
Access and mobility
Equality and diversity in entry
Fast track entry for people with experience
Mobility between routes and professions
Information
Flexibility
Different routes to the same end
Different configurations
Future research
Just the beginning of a process
Draw on chapter 7 for explanation/examples
13 September 2018

18. Recommended Outcomes and standards Content
Outcomes defined by reference to the knowledge, skills and attributes of a competent practitioner
Standards set
Co-ordination and collaboration
Content
Ethics, legal research, written and oral communication skills
Morality and law, values and the role of lawyers
Post-qualification: professional conduct, management and equality and diversity
Adjust the balances in the law degree
Assess research, writing and critical thinking in the law degree
Adjust the vocational courses (LPC and BPTC)
13 September 2018

19. Recommended Structures Information
Working and studying in different configurations
Adjusting periods of supervised practice (such as the training contract)
Focusing CPD on learning, not just “hours”
Supporting apprenticeships, access to internships and placements, progression for paralegals, voluntary regulation of paralegals outside regulated organisations
Information
On diversity
On careers, options, research, opportunities
Last point – altho the report is to the regulators, each of whom might have a different response, current event might be seen as pre-emptive in the “information” category.
13 September 2018

20. Responses of the regulators
New work on the prescribed content (or not) of the undergraduate law degree
Legal Services Board focus on what the individual can do at the point of authorisation; flexibility; balance between the individual and entity; ongoing competence
SRA and BSB working together on a day one competence statement for both solicitors and barristers
Reviews and changes to CPD schemes
Flexibility in achieving outcomes: “equivalent means”, multiple routes
13 September 2018

21. WEBB, J. , CHING, J. , MAHARG, P. and SHERR, A. , 2013
WEBB, J., CHING, J., MAHARG, P. and SHERR, A., Setting standards: the future of legal services education and training regulation in England and Wales. London: Legal Education and Training Review.  Available at: