Well, there's never a dull moment in legal education. The quiet bits consist of ill-tempered competition between vocational educational providers and sharp-elbowed jostling to secure exclusive law firm deals, all played out against a backdrop of endless debate over educational reform.

And bringing a new element to the mix, it was announced yesterday (29 April) that the US education company Apollo Group had made a preliminary approach for BPP Holdings plc, the parent company of BPP Law School, valuing the business at £303.5m.

Obviously, that doesn't mean a done deal and the statement issued by BPP's board underlines the fact that the group still has hopes of pursuing an independent strategy. Still, putting down a 70% premium to BPP's share price at the end of Tuesday (28 April) in an all-cash approach "not … subject to external financing conditionality", suggests Apollo is serious.

The question now is whether a formal offer will materialise after Apollo looks at BPP's books and if the approach will smoke out another (presumably foreign) bidder. Given BPP's clout in the UK vocational market and status as the UK's only for-profit body with degree-awarding powers, it would be a tempting prize.

Lawyers, of course, will be primarily interested in the influence of the approach on the law school. While the education market has gone through much upheaval over the last decade, BPP has clearly emerged along with the College of Law as one of two very dominant players the commercial sector.

Potentially bringing in foreign ownership for such a well-known institution could ruffle some feathers in the profession, particularly given the stronger commercial imperative in the US educational sphere, where Apollo has built a $3bn business.

Apollo would have also, in a single bound, travelled much further than Kaplan, the US education provider than has made steady but unspectacular inroads in the UK via its joint venture with Nottingham Law School. Set against that, the intense competition and unambiguously commercial drift of our legal education sector in recent years hardly suggests a major culture clash under US ownership. Nevertheless, the sizeable band of BPP-bashers, who already find it too brash and trusting, would doubtless find fresh ammunition should this institution fall to the greenback.