Dividing the Legal Practice Course into two stages and piloting work-based learning will improve standards on the road to qualification, says Peter Williamson


Some significant changes to the training pathway for new solicitors will begin this year. There have certainly been many years of debating the subject. Many have questioned why there is a need to change what has been a successful route to qualification that has served the profession well for many years.



But standing still is not an option, especially now the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) regulates in the public interest and its emphasis is on protection of the public. This means there is a real need for the SRA to be able to vouch for the standard of those now joining the profession.



Training arrangements are often excellent but at the moment we are not able to be sure that all new solicitors meet the standards we set. We are taking steps to place a greater emphasis on students’ competence and how this is assessed. We recognise there are different ways by which individuals can achieve the level of competence required. We have now published our Day One Outcomes – a comprehensive list of what is expected of solicitors at the point of qualification – and in the future we will have more certainty that all solicitors can meet those outcomes.



So what changes are expected? First is the structure of the legal practice course (LPC). Some course providers will be making changes to their course in 2009 and all courses will have to be revised by 2010. In essence, the LPC is being divided into two stages. Stage one will cover the three core practice areas – business law and practice, property law and litigation, and wills and the administration of estates, plus professional conduct, skills and regulation. Stage two will cover the three vocational electives chosen by the student.



This will lead to greater flexibility in the way that LPC courses can be designed and delivered. It relaxes the current regulations that govern how the courses are designed at present. It will provide greater scope to providers to tailor their courses to different types of practice, according to the goals of their students. Providers will be able to disengage stages one and two, which will offer students more options in the way they complete the course.



While over time some individual students will be able to apply for an exemption from attending some part of the course, all students will be required to pass all LPC standard assessments. I expect many will continue to study a combined course but some will welcome the options of a more flexible study path. We will be placing greater emphasis on the independent scrutiny of examinations and other assessments taken by students.



Another important step this year is the start of our pilot programme in September, which will look at the training contract period which we are now calling work-based learning. The bottleneck between the numbers of people completing their LPC courses and the number of training contracts has existed for a while. Our pilot scheme may help to alleviate this problem, creating a route to qualification for those who have not been able to secure a training contract.



What we want to open is a route for those who have appropriate legal experience, but instead of being assessed by a training principal they would be assessed by an outside organisation. All trainees would, of course, be expected to reach the same outcomes which are at the heart of our education and training strategy. We will focus on the standards to be achieved, rather than prescribing the route or the type of learning required.



A trainee without a formal training contract would still have to have the support of their employer and would need to be working under the supervision of a qualified solicitor, but the assessment of their learning would be done by an external assessor. This should encourage firms who are not able to develop a structured training programme or do assessments themselves, but are willing to support trainees. The use of external assessment organisations should lead to a greater consistency of standards being achieved and being consistently applied to all.



We have a range of firms interested in taking part in the pilot scheme and we hope to involve a few hundred trainees in the two-year process. We have listened and taken account of the comments that have come through our consultation process – many suggestions have been helpful in shaping the way forward. We will need continuing feedback on both changes to the LPC and work-based learning. I hope we can rely on those of you with an interest in legal education to help us with this evolutionary process.



Referral decision

You may have seen that the SRA board has come to a decision about referral arrangements following our year-long campaign of information, inspection and enforcement.



For me it was interesting to note that even those board members – both solicitors and lay people – who were in principle opposed to referrals did not think that this was the right time to reintroduce a ban.



We have a series of proposed measures to consider, including standard agreements and an annual reporting requirement for those who use referral arrangements. Be assured that the subject will be kept under review, and we will continue to check that solicitors are acting with integrity and in the best interests of their clients.



Peter Williamson is chairman of the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority