The Gazette 1971

Young Barristers Society in December last 1 gave a general outline of my thinking on the subject of legal education reform. My principal theme was that there should be a common system of professional education under which it would be open to a student on quali- fying to ch(x)se which branch of the law he would enter. I envisaged one professional law school to which nobody would be admitted until he had obtained a university degree. Accompanying these changes in the educational system, I foresaw the need for improved facilities for post-graduate professional training. Since then the Ormrod Committee Report has been published, and I was interested to see that in general the Committee's views coincide with mine. I hope this Report will he examined in detail as I feel it will prove very useful to us in considering the reform of our own system of legal education. After all, this country has practically the same system of legal education and the same division of the professions as England, and we are both applicants for membership of the European Economic Community. Ormrod Teaching Recommendations While on the subject of the Ormrod Committee Report I should like to mention a few of what are, in my view, the most significant of the Committee's recom- mendations. In order to integrate, as far as possible, law teaching for the two branches of the legal profes- sion, the Committee have recommended that the teach- ing of academic law should in future he undertaken exclusively in the universities. They envisage the educa- tion and training of the legal profession being under- taken in three separate stages : (1) the academic stage, which would normally involve taking a university law degree; (2) the professional or vocational stage which would consist of a practical vocational course to be provided by a limited number of universities into which the present professional law schools would merge, followed by practical experience under supervision; and (3) continuing training after qualification and throughout the lawyer's professional career. As far as the solicitors' profession is concerned, this would mean the end of the articles of apprenticeship system, which would be replaced by a period of limited practice under supervision after qualification. One of the by-products of the common system of training and education recommended by the Committee is that transfers between the branches of the profession should be possible without examinations having to be taken. Probably the only requirement would be a suit- able period of pupillage or limited practice. The Com- mittee state that "while many people seem to be able to make a decisive choice at an early stage . . . there will always be a number who later feel that they would like to change from one branch to the other". I agree wholeheartedly with this view. Academic Teaching in Universities As I have already said, we must give serious thought to the desirability of handing over the academic teach- ing of law entirely to the universities. From the purely practical point of view they are the best equipped to provide this type of teaching. It seems to me that the professional bodies clearly recognise the value of university training by the fact that at present they grant certain exemptions to students who are attending a university or who possess university degrees. Looking at the matter from the strictly educational aspect, I believe that law students would benefit tremendously from the stimulus of the broader academic environment of the university. In this connection the following extract from the report of our own Commission on Higher Education (of which the Chief Justice was Chairman) is relevant :

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