The recently published proposals for the radical reform of the training regime has caused something of a rumpus - and that is hardly surprising, not least to those solicitors who qualified some years ago and who have been reflecting on how on earth they managed to qualify - in my case in 1950.

With an upper second LLB (Manchester University), three years in the Army, a second-class honours in the Law Society's final exams and only one year's articles (deemed sufficient for ex-Service would-be solicitors) I evidently satisfied the then Master of the Rolls and my name was added to the roll, where it remains to this day, even though I no longer hold a practising certificate.


Nevertheless, whenever the Council of the Law Society holds a poll of members, I have a vote and I value that right.


That the current training regime requires radical overall cannot seriously be questioned. The financial burden incurred even in the 1950s was serious enough but there were no university fees and maintenance grants were available for ex-Service trainees. Articled clerks received no payment from their principals, but did pay a premium for the privilege of being trained, plus £80 stamp duty on the articles of clerkship. The present training regime has emerged over the past 60 years to the evident detriment of the profession and those who would aspire to join it.


But if I have correctly understood the proposals, they are throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Surely there must be an alternative that preserves the justification of a professional status for our profession by reducing the financial burden but maintaining an academic base.


My solution would be simply to adapt the system currently in vogue for many modern degree courses and tag on to the end of it a pre-registration year.


So the route to our profession would be:


  • A four-year honours degree course (not necessarily a law degree). The third year would be a legally based work experience year to be followed by the fourth (academic) year. Undergraduates who, for example, had embarked on a three-year BA Hons course but who decided that a career in the law was for them, would test their ambition with a year out in the legal professional world.



    • They would then have the option of completing their BA Hons course or possibly being awarded an ordinary LLB based on the two-years BA course and a one-year specially designed law course.


  • Following graduation, the aspiring solicitor would undertake a pre-registration year with a firm of solicitors approved by the Law Society and with the benefit of a training contract.



    • The result would at least ensure that all solicitors had the proven academic and intellectual ability to cope with the demands of our profession.


    Alan Mundy, Eastbourne, Sussex