Within the next few weeks members of the profession will be meeting the first students to have completed the new legal practice course.

The new course replaced the Law Society finals course which was devised initially by the College of Law.

The College of Law and other institutions authorised to teach the finals course devised some good practical exercises which gave the students an insight into practice.

Unfortunately, because the course was examined externally by the Law Society, there was little scope for flexibility and many students came from the course feeling that they had spent most of their time merely learning how to pass the examination.In broad terms the legal practice course builds on the Law Society finals course by emphasising practical skills rather than black letter law.

The other major change is that institutions now set and mark their own assessments.

In doing this the institutions must comply with the Law Society's written standards which form the basis for the curriculum.

The core subjects are partially examined by written examination.There is a variety of methods of teaching students on the course and most institutions are happy to welcome local practitioners and discuss with them the methods of carrying on the course.From September 1994 there will be 29 institutions running the course either full-time, part-time and, in one particular case, within an exempt degree over four years.

The institutions offering the course have been validated after a visit by the Law Society through the legal practice course board.

The main elements of the course are as follows.-- Introduction.

Most courses contain a two-week introduction to the course in which the students are given an overview of what is to be achieved in the course and some teaching of the 'pervasives'.-- Pervasives.

Four elements pervade the course: European Union law, professional conduct, taxation and financial services.

In the introduction there is often specific teaching of these subjects.

It is unlikely that any student will have covered all of these subjects in their undergraduate degree or in the common professional examination.

In many cases, none of them will have been covered.

During the legal practice course the pervasive subjects are tested within the context of the core subjects.-- The core subjects.

There are four core subjects: wills, probate and administration, conveyancing, litigation and evidence and business law and practice.

Unseen written examinations account for 60% of the marks in these subjects although it is permissible for students to take material into these examinations.

Course work accounts for up to 40% of the marks.

Course work may consist of dealing with a problem in writing, drafting documents, preparing a file while going through the course, drawing a brief to counsel or writing a letter under client care r.15, etc.

The course work assessment will be a reflection of what happens in practice.-- Skills.

A major innovation of the course is to provide an introduction to lawyers' skills: legal research, advocacy, interviewing, negotiating and drafting.

It might be surprising to find legal research in this list but the Law Society has found over many years that students came on to the Law Society finals course without ever having properly learned this skill, or indeed properly learned to use a law library.

That is a great pity now that most libraries not only carry good book collections and are equipped with LEXIS, CD ROM and many other learning tools.

The skills are assessed on a competent/non-competent basis, nor mally by two assessments.-- Options.

Students study two optional courses which may be assessed in a number of ways.

Assessment can be by unseen written examination, course work or, in some cases, oral work such as conducting a mock application in chambers.

There is a large variety of options from which students may choose.

All institutions must provide options in areas of law dealt with by commercial practices and in general practices for private clients.

The most popular options appear to be family law and employment law, although there is also a great deal of interest in advanced commercial law and other business law courses.

Other options include European Union law and environmental law.-- Monitoring.

It has been a major task for the institutions to draw this course into a cohesive whole to be delivered over a period of 30 to 36 weeks.

It is important that the profession continually monitors what is happening in the course in order that students are being taught best practice.

Formal monitoring is carried out by the legal practice course board and assessors visit on an annual basis over three days.

The team of assessors includes a training officer of the Society and a teacher and/or practitioner.The Society hopes that practitioners, on meeting students from the course, will take the opportunity to discuss the course fully with them.

Perhaps someone will let us know whether we are populating the profession with Calibans or Prosperos.