Legal executives are a natural choice for judicial appointments as they have the aptitude and experience for such roles, says George Owens

At present, a legal executive cannot be considered for judicial appointment at any level.

And although the Commission for Judicial Appointments has made a powerful case for change in the selection process, the Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX) thinks that the Department for Constitutional Affairs has taken too narrow a view of the problems and possible solutions.

The government has stated that it is openly seeking appointments from more women, ethnic minorities and from those having a generally suitable educational background.

While ILEX welcomes the appointment of Dame Barbara Hale as the first Law Lady, it believes that this spirit needs to permeate the whole appointment process.

ILEX implores the government to ignore the current criteria of a suitable applicant '...having to be a solicitor/barrister of seven years' [qualification] ...' If it does, then the remaining criteria do not reveal any skills that automatically rule out legal executives.

Two-thirds of legal executives are women and 80% of ILEX students are female.

Many of our members have a non-white ethnic origin.

Our academic training is to degree level and increasing numbers of legal executives have degrees in law and other disciplines.

Frankly, ministers need look no further.

We expect the government to look closely at the range of skills, attributes and experience that legal executives possess and to find that, for some judicial appointments, our members are exactly what they are looking for.

Last year, ILEX celebrated its 40th anniversary.

During that time it has developed from a small training group to a well respected, nationally recognised professional body.

Great strides have been made over the past 40 years, with ILEX consolidating its role as the third branch of the profession alongside solicitors and barristers.

Its role is to provide greater access to justice, promote the rule of law generally, and a wider consumer choice.

As ILEX is such a young entity, we constantly strive to obtain further rights and benefits for our members.

There are many issues ILEX is currently pursuing.

Recently, higher rights of advocacy in open court hearings have been gained.

ILEX has also submitted an application to enable appropriately trained legal executives to exercise full rights of audience in criminal matters in the magistrates' courts and limited rights in the Crown Court.

We are currently awaiting a response from the legal services consultative panel and we are confident this application will be successful.

Another area currently being developed as a result of the Access to Justice Act is granting suitably qualified legal executives rights to conduct litigation.

What is key is that this would enable legal executives to consider independent practice, whether as the owner of a legal practice, head of a legal team in commerce or industry or leading teams in local or central government.

What of ILEX's future role? It is our long-term aim for legal executives to be able to run legal practices as of right.

This is currently an issue that no doubt will be considered in the Clementi review.

What we will be seeking to achieve out of the review is the provision of same disciplinary partnerships.

But whatever the outcome of the Clementi review, it is clear that ILEX is looking forward to its next 40 years.

George Owens is the president of the Institute of Legal Executives