The Gazette 1967/71

plan.. The respective memoranda of the senate and the Law Society' to the Lord Chancellor's committee show that the principle of common education for solicitors and barristers is generally accepted. Transfer from one side of the profession to the other will thus be made easier in the near future, as urged by the report. TRAINING FOR THE LAW THE COUNCIL of Legal Education publishes today details of a new scheme for the education of students for the Bar. An outline of the plan was put forward last November in a memorandum from the Senate of the Four Inns of Court to the Lord Chancellor's Committee on Legal Education and the scheme will now be effective from today for every new student joining an Inn of Court and preparing for qualification as a barrister. Putting the scheme into effect now is particularly to be welcomed, for the Lord Chancellor's Com mittee may not report until the middle of next year and it may then be another year before its recommendations are accepted and put into operation. As the council points out, the scheme is so designed that it can easily be adapted to any proposals which are forthcoming from the Lord Chancellor's committee. The committee is unlikely to disagree in prin ciple with the current thinking of the Law Society on Legal Education. Both bodies recognize that it is desirable that a student should be able to com plete the first part of his course if possible at university before he is required to decide whether he will pursue a career as a barrister or solicitor. The idea of a common preliminary examination will help not only the student but also the qualified lawyer who may choose after some years of prac tice to transfer from one side of the profession to the other. At present the mechanics of transference are unnecessarily difficult. The Society of Labour Lawyers in a pamphlet on legal education published at the weekend criti cizes this and other defects of the present system, many of which arc acknowledged by the bodies responsible for legal education. The council's deci sion to teach students professional techniques before call also finds support from the Labour Lawyers. The effect of this innovation combined with a stiffer final examination should be to pro- 107

Academic standards for entering the Inns of Court will be raised, the number of teaching staff increased, and fees will rise by 40 per cent. Lord Diplock, chairman of the council, described the scheme as a " most exciting step forward ", and said that for the first time the council would teach professional skills to a student before he was called to the Bar. Higher fees were inevitable, he said, but it was hoped that the Lord Chancellor's committee on legai education would recommend assistance for the council from public funds. If the Government wanted to maintain an efficient legal profession, financial assistance would have to be provided. The council would keep fees within the limits of local authority grants, Lord Diplock said, and it was hoped that all Bar students would become eligible for such grants. The reforms planned by the council follow broadly the memorandum of the senate of the four Inns of Court to the Lord Chancellor's com mittee published last year (The Times, Novem ber 4). The senate envisaged that a Bar student's pre paration for practice should be divided into two points: an educational stage, which could be completed at university, followed by intensive training, including study of specialized subjects such as landlord and tenant and hire-purchase law, and instruction in advocacy and work in chambers. All students admitted after today will be sub ject to the new scheme, and for existing students transitional arrangements have been made. The Society of Labour Lawyers, in a report published by the Fabian Society, criticizes the systems of legal education in both branches of the profession. The examinations ignored many areas of social and professional importance, according to the report, and pupillage and articles were inefficient methods of training. Educational and other facili ties for Bar students were inadequate, and the requirement that a student must qualify for the Bar by keeping terms was often a serious obstacle to entry to the profession. Many of the defects of the legal education system to which the report draws attention are acknowledged by both sides of the profession. Indeed, some of the Labour lawyers' proposals are being implemented under the council's new