David Pickup's blogs

Despite not wishing to be thought a grumpy old lawyer I decided to look at the Legal Ombudsman’s recent report, The price of separation: Divorce-related legal complaints and their causes.

This report made the news as it features lots of stories about wicked lawyers. The press revel in bad stories about us. We are told that 13% of divorce clients are dissatisfied with their lawyer as against 7% of clients overall. As a glass half-full person that means to me that a very high proportion of clients are satisfied with our services.

Or perhaps I am being simplistic. My firm has, on average, a certain number of complaints per year. I am told the level is high and I always respond that our clients are vulnerable, challenging and often unwell. But I suppose that goes for all of us. We all act for clients who by their nature are often difficult.

What I wonder is how the satisfaction rate compares with other professions or services. This is not a reason for complacency even though it is obvious that divorce clients are not the easiest; litigation is often driven by high emotions and as someone once said, litigation always ends in failure for one party.

The report itself is sensible and fair. It led me to look at An ombudsman’s view of good costs service. It is a well-produced booklet, easily digestible and worth a look. Show it around the office. It makes the point that the legal market is changing. People can get divorce kits, fixed-price deals, and online advice. What does the high street lawyer offer that the online divorce-kit seller cannot? We can offer easy access and plain old-fashioned face-to-face advice.

Obviously the best way to deal with a complaint is to avoid it in the first place. The booklet goes a long way to help. I will drink to that.

David Pickup is a partner at Aylesbury-based Pickup & Scott

There is said to be a small village where the only industry is one in which dwellers take in each other’s washing. The more I think about it the more likely that will happen to the solicitors’ profession. Not that we will take in each other’s laundry. No, nothing as sophisticated as that.

I think we will all end up being consultants, running courses and writing books on how to be lawyers. You can see it happening now. We are bombarded daily with different audits, competencies, and demands we have to satisfy. This has led to a growth of consultants to test us, authors of manuals on how to pass the test, and trainers.

Good luck to them I suppose but does anyone realise how hard pressed we are simply to comply with the demands that some agencies make on us? At least in my firm we have enough people to make policies worthwhile - someone writes a policy and another reads it. For sole practitioners it must be mind-boggling writing detailed policies for the same person to read.

At the moment we have been deciding whether to seek Lexcel accreditation or the Specialist Quality Mark. Gladly, we as a profession have a choice, which is obviously a good thing. They are both perfectly reasonable standards to aspire to and anything that makes us solicitors look better is clearly marvellous – but the amount of work involved is high. No doubt the standards will change on a yearly basis and someone will have keep up to speed.

What I will do is write a book called How to Make a Fortune on the High Street. You can have it - price £500.

David Pickup is a partner at Aylesbury-based Pickup & Scott

Tucked away in the new year’s press was an announcement of an apprenticeship route to qualification as a solicitor. I wondered why and when the profession abandoned the five-year article route.

Over the years there have been, as there is now, a number of different routes to train and qualify as a solicitor. Before 1980, there was a Part One examination for school leavers and non-law graduates following a one-year course for school leavers or optional six-month course for non-law graduates. All candidates took the Part Two examination after an optional six-month course.

In 1980 the Common Professional Examination for non-law graduates and Solicitors’ First Examination for school leavers were introduced. The Final Exam replaced Part Two. In 1985 compulsory continuing education for newly qualified solicitors was introduced. In the late 1980s it was then considered that the usual method of entry to the profession should be via a law degree. Interestingly there were concerns that the falling birth rate would lead to fewer graduates.

The main aim of any changes was to improve the quality of training. Any system of education was and is affected by variables outside the Law Society’s control such as the willingness or otherwise of government or banks to fund education, the birth rate, and the attractiveness of other professions. The last First exam was August 1993 and the final Final was 1994 (if you see what I mean).

Documents show that law colleges were firmly against non-graduates entering the profession but local law societies were equally supportive of the opposite view. There has always been a non-graduate entry route to the profession – namely as a legal executive (which is sometimes overlooked). And in the 1980s it was felt the FILEX route should be better publicised.

The aim of any professional training regime must be to attract the best applicants, so that talented individuals are not dissuaded by lack of money, or their background. The profession has always been competitive and unlike other careers has enjoyed a flexible approach to different ways to qualify. That must continue. Here are some other ideas:

Apprenticeships should be welcomed provided they are properly funded, open to small firms as well as large concerns, and provide a rigorous training. The legal executive route still needs to be better publicised. There ought to be system of modules of training which can be built up at different places of work or study, including backdated experience.

I am extremely grateful for the information provided by Joao Curro of the Law Society library. Any errors are mine.

David Pickup is a partner in Aylesbury-based Pickup & Scott

I love this time of year: the decorations, the lights, so much to do, everyone else making money, clients. In fact everyone wants everything to be done before Christmas. How I miss those seasonal contact/access applications. At least the pre-Christmas rush of people queuing outside shops to do their shoplifting has finished.

In my area of law there is a flurry of people being detained in hospitals, mirrored by the staff trying to get other patients discharged or sent home on leave. Patients refused leave all year suddenly sent home with medication and the Radio Times’ guide to films such as Great Escape and One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest.

It is not only clients who want everything done; it is the courts and tribunals as well. And of course most people seem to be on leave. One Christmas eve I had a host of clients wanting to apply for decrees nisi. I am not sure what staff would be at court over the holiday to process them. If you have an emergency application between Christmas and new year it is surprising how many judges volunteer to go to the office presumably to get some peace and quiet.

I am trying now to get a few minutes to buy presents - and a tree - and am wondering how much I can afford on gifts for possible sources of work and which clients, if any, to send cards to.

I wonder what the future will bring the high street lawyer. New year brings new legal aid changes. But it is Christmas and one message of this time of year is hope. We are professionals and I was reminded recently we solicitors are problem solvers. We are good at adapting. So happy Christmas, and God bless us all.

David Pickup is a partner in Aylesbury-based Pickup & Scott