Controversial plans to widen entry to the legal profession face a setback after the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) announced today (31 May) that it had delayed piloting the new-look system until 2008.
The proposals, which are aimed at developing an alternative route to qualify for trainee lawyers who fail to secure a training contract, were initially due to be trialled from September this year after a lengthy consultation by the SRA.
However, the SRA today said that it was to delay the pilot, citing the challenge of creating a model “which is robust enough not to be seen as a ‘second class’ route to qualification”.
Under the plans, which are likely to cut the length of a training contract from two years to 16 months, trainees could qualify as solicitors without a contract, providing they have gained core skills and experience while working in a legal environment.
The reforms, which follow several years of consultation, were bitterly criticized last year by a number of major City firms, with many fearing they could hit the educational standards of newly-qualified solicitors.
Explaining the decision, Dr Jonathan Spencer, chair of the SRA’s education and training committee, said: “We could have begun to pilot the [new system] this autumn, but decided it would be wise to spend a little more time in developing the arrangements."
He added: “The challenge is to develop a system which is robust enough not to be seen as a ‘second class’ route to qualification, but not so bureaucratic that trainees and their employers are reluctant to use it. We have not yet quite cracked this dilemma.”
The news comes as Scots lawyers are also braced for a radical overhaul of the entry system to the legal profession after a major consultation by the Law Society of Scotland.
The review, which gathered 900 responses including submissions by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and several MPs, could mean a law degree is no longer a prerequisite to qualify as a solicitor in Scotland.
Scots Law Society director of education and training Liz Campbell commented: “We are the only jurisdiction in the world to have undertaken a review of legal education on this scale. None has taken such a holistic approach, with the potential for radical change across the whole of a solicitor’s training.”
Meanwhile, the Bar Standards Board also this week voiced its opposition to limiting the number of places on the Bar Vocational Course (BVC) and to plans to increase the minimum academic requirement for BVC entry to a 2:1 in its formal response to Lord Neuberger’s working party on access to the profession.
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