The Legal Education and Training Review research project Jane Ching Professor of Professional Legal Education Nottingham Trent University UK Jane.ching@ntu.ac.uk 40 minutes plus questions.

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

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).

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.

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..

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.

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

(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

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

The Legal Education and Training Review

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

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

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

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. 13 September 2018

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

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 13 September 2018

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

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

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

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

WEBB, J. , CHING, J. , MAHARG, P. and SHERR, A. , 2013 WEBB, J., CHING, J., MAHARG, P. and SHERR, A., 2013. Setting standards: the future of legal services education and training regulation in England and Wales. London: Legal Education and Training Review.  Available at: http://letr.org.uk/the-report/index.html