Bar group floats capping BVC places and relaxing funding in access push

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The Bar Council may limit the number of places available on the Bar Vocational Course (BVC) and force course providers to reveal the chances of gaining a pupillage, as part of a closer review of access and diversity at the Bar.

The proposals currently being considered by Lord Neuberger's working party were unveiled in an interim report issued on 5 April.

Proposals include limiting BVC course places by introducing a requirement for students to achieve a 2:1 degree, reintroducing unfunded pupillages and asking course providers to publish the number of pupillages and tenancies their graduates obtained for the previous five years.

Neuberger told Legal Week he believed the reforms could widen the profession's diversity, commenting: "People who are less privileged could do less well in competency tests as they may not have achieved their educational potential. However, it may be possible to design a test that would overcome this."

The Bar Council is attempting to resolve the problem of growing numbers of BVC students missing out on pupillages. Recent research shows there are only 550 pupillages available for the 1,800 people who pass the BVC each year.

Chambers may now have to reveal whether a student has obtained a pupillage before they commit to the BVC. The working party also suggested the introduction of online BVC courses in conjunction with Open University-type distance learning.

A consultation on the proposals has now been launched. Responses are due by 31 May, with the group set to report its findings by the end of the year.

Bar plans reporting system for poor performers

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Poorly performing barristers will be reported by judges and colleagues under new proposals drawn up by the Bar Council to improve the quality of advocacy at the Bar.

A consultation on the measures, which will see underperforming barristers reported to a newly created non-disciplinary body, dubbed the Bar Quality Advisory Panel, was launched by the Bar Council this month.

Reported barristers will receive help on improving their performances and will be encouraged to receive training in any aspects of the law they are not up-to-date with.

As first reported by Legal Week last year (November) the measures are likely to precede compulsory performance appraisals of barristers.

The Bar Council is also set to introduce a sweeping quality assurance grading system for publicly-funded advocates.

The scheme, which will be piloted from October, is likely to be implemented as a four-tier grading system with junior advocates starting at level one and working upwards as they handle increasingly complex cases.

Universities join College of Law mentoring scheme

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Five universities have teamed up with the College of Law and educational charity the Sutton Trust to provide a mentoring programme for underprivileged students.

The universities of Leeds, Manchester, Southampton, Warwick and the London School of Economics will all work with sixth-form students in their local areas as part of a drive to encourage more students from non-professional and poorer families into the law. Mentoring will also be provided once students start their law degrees.

The College is donating £1.25m for the programme, dubbed 'Pathways to Law, over the next five years to widen access to the profession; the Sutton Trust is donating a further £250,000.

The programme, which starts this September, is targeting students such as those who will be the first in their family to attend university.

The College and the Sutton Trust are also in the process of signing up law firms to ensure that students can get work experience.

Carolyn Lee, diversity and inclusion manager at Herbert Smith, told Legal Week: "Anything that looks towards widening access has to be welcomed and a programme that intervenes at a school level and raises aspirations and awareness for students early on has to be a very positive step."

The initiative was prompted by a 2005 report by the Sutton Trust which found that three out of four top judges, more than two-thirds of top barristers and more than half the partners at leading law firms had been educated at private schools. The charities estimate that about 750 students a year could be helped by 2010.

The article appears in the Spring 2007 edition of the Legal Week Student supplement. Click here for a full list of articles. To order a hard copy email [email protected] or ring 020 7004 7422

Legal Week Student Spring 2007