A PLAN to allow people to qualify as a solicitor without a law degree or vocational training is causing rifts in the legal profession.
The proposal for the biggest reform of legal training comes before the Council of the Law Society, the professional body for 90,000 solicitors in England and Wales, this week.
They could result in the current qualification route being scrapped in favour of a “pick and mix” menu to widen entry to the profession.
But the proposals have been criticised by university law schools, City law firms and training colleges. Nigel Savage, chief executive of the College of Law, the largest training college for solicitors, said: “It’s a bit like saying, I’ve had six months’ experience in a butcher’s shop so I can be a surgeon.
He said it would take longer under the plans to train as a Corgi-registered plumber than a lawyer, and standards would be at risk.
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“To eliminate compulsory education and training for solicitors when the biggest issue facing the profession is complaints by the public is the act of a profession with a death wish.”
The proposals, he said, seemed to be in a time warp: “There is a tremendous variety and flexibility already in the routes students can take to qualifying as a solicitor so it is wrong to say that students are straitjacketed.”
A second concern was that research had shown that the proposals would drive up costs, with law firms having to pick up the bill for extra training. “So you drive down costs for students but increase it for law firms — which ultimately means the public, the clients, in legal fees,” Mr Savage said.
But Janet Paraskeva, chief executive of the Law Society, said that the present route deterred many potential students because of the high costs and inability to “learn as you earn”. The system, she said, was “outmoded, expensive and possibly discriminatory”.
Quality would not be sacrificed under the plans, she said. “We are proposing to raise the standards of academic qualification to honours degree level, whereas at present an ordinary degree is sufficient.”
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A report from the UK Centre for Legal Education at Warwick University in 2003 found that law students can run up debts of up to £40,000.
Now students must have a degree and then take a one-year vocational legal practice course, costing up to £10,000, ending in a qualifying examination. If their degree is not in law, they take an extra one-year conversion course before the vocational year. Under the proposals from the Law Society’s training review, to go before the council on Wednesday, those requirements would be abolished.
Instead, there would be no prescribed qualification route. Students would have to do a period of work-based training and pass assessments showing skills and legal knowledge.
Ms Paraskeva said that the existing route would remain the norm for most students.
But there is widespread opposition among law firms and law schools.
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Law firms responsible for trainees, the Legal Education and Training Group, have said there is “no need or justification for dismantling the existing education framework”.