Aspiring lawyers are not being taught key commercial and client relationship skills, resulting in "fundamental gaps" in the current legal education system, according to a discussion paper published by the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) this week.

The paper recommends that legal education and training are overhauled so legal professionals are taught core knowledge, communication, organisational and commercial skills.

The paper highlights "gaps, for some purposes, in core knowledge and commercial skills. More fundamental gaps have been highlighted as regards client relations/communication skills, ethical awareness and organisational skills."

Legal education should be reformed to ensure legal professionals are able to demonstrate "sound practical skills and a commitment to high ethical standards", the LETR states, with the body finding an over-reliance on initial training to guarantee on-going competence and quality.

The body calls for ethics and values to be at the heart of training and regulation, as well as a greater adaptability and willingness for organisations and individuals to develop new skills-sets or extend existing ones. 'Soft' client-facing skills, along with commercial and business skills, were marked as particular areas for improvement.

In the paper the LETR also criticises a lack of flexibility in training pathways and a need to design qualifications and awards with clear entry, exit and transfer points.

Among the other options mooted, the body looked at the advantages of setting standards independently of qualifications, so that core competences could be applied to all regulated legal activity. This would help combat the "relative fragmentation of standards as well as the lack of consistent training for paralegals", the LETR suggests.

The LETR will to make final recommendations in a report due in late December 2012 to the commissioning regulators, the Solicitors Regulation authority (SRA) , Bar Standards Board (BSB) and ILEX Professional Standards.

Last year doubt was cast as to how the LETR's final recommendations would be put into effect, with one law school manager expecting "the regulators will drag their heels when it comes to implementation".