Newly qualified solicitors should not use clients as guinea pigs to gain advocacy experience.

I was pleased to read that the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has backtracked over plans for automatic rights of audience for solicitors (see [2008] Gazette, 11 September, 2).

The Junior Lawyers Division has always argued that, if the SRA is serious about the proposal, then it must first tackle the inadequacies of the legal practice course (LPC).

It has been suggested that a solicitor on day one of practice is in the same position as a pupil barrister and that there is no justification for any difference between the two. This is simply not true.

The Bar Vocational Course (BVC) is completely different from the LPC. BVC students are taught the basic elements of advocacy for both civil and criminal cases, including fact management, case preparation and analysis.

Thereafter, pupil barristers begin an almost daily routine of attending court, shadowing experienced advocates.

Newly qualified solicitors are not in that position. The LPC offers minimal advocacy training. It prepares a trainee/newly qualified for minor hearings, for example a small application before a District Judge in chambers. There is no mandatory advocacy module. This level of training is grossly inadequate.

The Professional Skills Course is no better. During the period of work-based learning, there is no mandatory advocacy seat. Trainees are not required to have observed a certain number of hours of advocacy and, in many firms, there would be no opportunity to do so. To give such an individual automatic rights in all courts is, in our view, wrong.

There [was] a real reputational risk to solicitors in the operation of the proposals. Newly qualified solicitors are regularly sent to county and magistrates’ courts to deal with cases without much experience, because their employers believe them capable by virtue of the solicitor qualification. For there even to be the potential for a complicated and high-cost case to be handled by an inexperienced advocate is, again, wrong.

A client's right to complain to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal or bring a case against the solicitor in negligence is not the correct answer to the problem.

Training must come first, to prevent clients being used as guinea pigs in a solicitor’s efforts to gain experience.

Kat Gibson, Chair, Junior Lawyers Division