Setting the standards

There are now so many law students that many will never practise.

Andrew Holroyd looks at the measures needed to keep up quality standards

What should legal education be trying to achieve and what does the profession demand of academic institutions?The first factor shaping the answer is the desire of the government to increase the numbers entering higher education.

Although the money provided by the government for law students is a faction of that provided for medics or science graduates, to a university trying to pack the students in, increasing the size of the law department is a quick and popular solution.

There are now more than 12,000 students annually undertaking law degrees.Only 4,500 training contracts are on offer each year and not that many pupillages at the bar.

So when less than half of all law graduates enter the legal profession, what is the purpose of a law degree?Secondly, our international firms are competing with the best lawyers the world can provide in every continent.

At home, competition is fierce with non-lawyers threatening our market at every level.

Both the Legal Services Commission and clients demand that solicitors are specialists and the best in their fields.So new recruits must hit the ground running, be able to analyse legal problems and interface well with colleagues and clients alike.

They will not be able to do this unless they are taught the right things well at law degree and legal practice course stage.But what does the profession demand of the academics? Do we want them to teach more black letter law? At a recent meeting of heads of law schools, law teachers, practitioners, the Bar Council and the Law Society, a consensus emerged.

We would not mind the law degree covering less areas of law so long as graduates had good analytical and research skills.But what are the consequences for the Law Society and Bar Council as regulators? Should we be setting out a detailed syllabus for the qualifying law degree and the LPC and regulating how law should be taught? Or should we just be setting out the basic knowledge, skills and abilities that we expect law graduates and LPC students to have achieved at the point of finishing their course if they expect to enter the profession? Should we be less concerned with the process and more concerned with outcomes?In the Law Society's Authorisation & Trainee Solicitors Guide, skills and outcomes are now emphasised during the training contract.

The assessment of those skills and outcomes is by way of appraisals.

The checklist system to determine what has been covered is no longer considered to be so important.

For example, the gaining of negotiation or advocacy skills is tested in the appraisal process.

This is a profound change in mindset for academics and practitioners alike.The Law Society has now embarked on a training framework review.

This project will seek to establish and agree outcome measures and standards required at each stage of a legal career - from law degree, completion of LPC, the point of qualification, membership of a panel, and finally to membership of a specialist panel.

Panel membership cannot be ignored because this is often the route to increased remuneration either from clients or the LSC.

At the moment there is little coherence between levels of attainment needed to gain membership from panel to panel.

Second-tier panels are now emerging in the fields of personal injury and family law.

These statements of outcome measures will set minimum levels of competence that can be achieved at various milestones in a lifetime in the law.This review will bring a theoretical coherence to the process of becoming and then developing as a solicitor.

In addition, by shifting thinking from the process of education to its outcome, it will focus on the ability to operate as a good lawyer.

And good lawyers will only remain good if they develop and enhances skills throughout their professional lives to remain ahead of the game.The review aims to set out the standards required of a competent lawyer in the 21st century.

This is not an easy task, but one which will have been worthwhile when achieved.Andrew Holroyd is chairman of the Law Society's training committee