Help... or pity?

The Law Society, as part of their drive to promote solicitors in general to the public, have re-launched this ad campaign:

Routes into the legal profession

All about law is a really good website for law students that's just had a revamp.

There's a really good interactive diagram of routes into the legal profession. There may well be more ways in than you thought - for AS study with OCR, you only really need to know the graduate path... but for your own life, you need to know that there's more than one way to skin a cat!

Listen...

...to this interview by legal blogger Charon QC with the Chief Executive of BPP law school for an insight into the academic and vocational stages of training to be a solicitor or barrister.

You could even take notes. Should I hold my breath?

Got what it takes?

...to become a top city solicitor?

Listen to this podcast of top legal blogger Charon QC talking with Lynn Johansen of Clifford Chance. A lot of what she says about the application and training process applies to most city law firms.

Meanwhile, there's another podcast here about the College of Law opening a new branch right here in Manchester. Some of you may end up studying there one day! Have a listen to find out what it might be like...

The future of the legal profession?

Training just got harder for would-be barristers (but easier for solicitors)

...says the Times today. Great stuff in here to throw into an exam answer on problems of training - good for A02 points!

AS students - read the article and answer the following questions for your file on the legal profession:

1. What is being proposed to "weed out" some people who want to do the BVC?
2. What did Derek Wood's reports say about the standards of some current BVC programmes?
3. In a given year, how many graduates are competing for how many pupillages according to the article, and how many places are there in percentage terms?
4. What will the revamped BVC be called?
5. What do you think the impact of these changes will be on students from disadvantaged backgrounds?
6. What measures are coming in to make it easier to qualify as a solicitor?

Can a leopard change its spots?

You can find the website of the Law Society's Legal Complaints Service here. It explains the complaints process well, in simple terms. The board is made up of 7 solicitors and 7 lay people (listed here). It claims to be independent from the Law Society but is part of it. See if you can find some statistics about how they are doing now - are things any better than in 1996, when a frankly appalling 2 out of 3 complainants were unhappy about how their complaint had been dealt with? No wonder they've rebranded the service so often - first it was called the Consumer Complaints Service (CCS), then the Office for Supervision of Solicitors (OSS), and now the LCS. But can a leopard change its spots? In 2005-6, only 66% of complaints were dealt with satisfactorily. Still not great.

For Barristers it's the Bar Standards Board that deals with complaints. They claim to be independent but are part of the Bar Council and are a mix of 8 barristers and 7 lay people, including the chair. By contrast with the LCS, the BSB handle 90% of complaints satisfactorily. Much more like it.

Given the generally poor record of the legal professions in dealing with complaints themselves, it's hardly surprising that the government have created various ways of keeping an eye on them.

Zahida Manzoor CBE (below) is the key figure here and wears two hats: she is the Legal Services Ombudsman and also the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner. She's not a lawyer!

Her powers as Commissioner under the Access to Justice Act 1999 are set out here; basically she can set targets for the Law Society in respect of complaints handling and fine them if they don't come up to scratch. In 2006 she did just that, fining them a whopping £250,000. That'll learn 'em. She doesn't oversee the Bar Standards Board though; that's done by another independent Lay Complaints Commissioner with much less power - presumably as the BSB is less of a problem (you can read their 2007 report here).

If a client is unhappy with how a specific case has been dealt with by either of the above bodies they can take that case to Ms Manzoor in her capacity as the Legal Services Ombudsman. She can force the solicitor or the Law Society itself to compensate the client. Bet they don't like her very much!

Training routes into the profession

A nice diagram here if you're not clear about how it works. ...

How competitive is it...

to become a barrister or solicitor?

Well, according to Legal Week magazine, in 2006 only about 550 people gained pupillage (a traineeship to be a barrister) - only 17.5% of students on the Bar Vocational Course.

Not great value at £10-12,000 a pop so you have to be good!

Question: what impact do you think such fees have on the diversity of the legal profession?

It's also very competitive to get a training contract to be a solcitor - only about 60% of LPC students get one straight away.

Diversity and the Legal Profession

The ministry of justice have come up with a new initiative designed to overcome the barriers leading to a career in the legal profession.


This shows two things:

1. They admit there's a problem; and

2. If you are sufficiently aware you CAN get help with a career in the legal profession as you go on to university.

This would be a good little "extra" piece of information to drop into an exam question about the problems of training to be a lawyer, by the way.

The Law Society are trying to rebrand the profession (see pic above) - but are they doing enough?