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International Edition

Bar leaders warn of impact of tuition hikes on diversity

Leading figures at the Bar including former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer, Bar council chairman Nicholas Green QC and chair of the Bar Standards Board Baroness Ruth Deech have called for the Bar to take action to improve diversity in anticipation of hikes in university tuition fees. Former Allen & Overy (A&O) senior partner Guy Beringer QC also spoke at an Inner Temple event last week (18 February), which saw speakers discuss the review of legal education announced last November as well as raise concerns about the impact of higher tuition fees on the already poor diversity statistics at the Bar.
3 minute read

International Edition

Squire Sanders Hammonds signs up for BPP's fast-track LPC

Squire Sanders Hammonds has become the first law firm to sign up to BPP Law School's fast-track Legal Practice Course (LPC) outside the five-firm City LPC Consortium comprising Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith, Hogan Lovells, Norton Rose and Slaughter and May. The decision means future trainees at the transatlantic firm's UK arm will start the seven-month course from this September. During the time between the course finishing and joining Squire Sanders Hammonds, trainees will take a three-month client secondment from May to July.
2 minute read

International Edition

Alternative Business Structures: some professional myths

Lord Falconer was recently reported to have said that Alternative Business Structures (ABSs) are likely to lead to pressure on lawyers' ethics, and that legal education needs to be adapted to cope with it. Leaving aside the fact that the Act which leads to more ABSs was sponsored by the Ministry of Justice when Charlie F (pictured) was Lord Chancellor, this is a rather uncontroversial position to take. Most lawyers I meet suck through their teeth at the prospect of ABSs. Allow grubby non-lawyers to invest in law firms, or to manage law firms or - somehow worse - provide services which are not legal services to Joe Public (or UK plc) and those firms are, ipso facto, more likely to be unethical.
4 minute read

International Edition

Linklaters and Addleshaws announce retention rates for March NQ intakes

Linklaters has become the latest City firm to post its March retention rates, with 50 out of 60 (83%) qualifying trainees offered a permanent position with the firm. Of the 50 trainees offered a newly-qualified (NQ) role, 49 accepted the offer, resulting in an overall retention rate of 82%.
3 minute read

International Edition

Commercial and Chancery Bar

Claire Ruckin looks at the future of the Bar Standards Board and Malcolm Davis White QC and Mr Justice Briggs give their view on the new Rolls Building
1 minute read

International Edition

Two years or not two years: that is not the question

The College of Law has launched a two-year law degree. A number of journalists and bloggers have tackled the subject (Alex Aldridge, Charon QC and Neil Rose). It seems worth, however, adding my two pennies worth. Whether a two-year course at about £18k is perceived to provide better value than a three-year course at (up to) £27k depends significantly on who is paying the £18k, when and with what rate of interest. In public universities fees will be deferred and underwritten by the state. In private insitutions £18k will have to be found pretty quickly and paid for at commercial rates of interest. There will be little or no time to work during holidays or in term time to pay of accumulating living expenses. Employability of these students will be key (to which I return).
8 minute read

International Edition

Olswang defers London trainees and cancels 2013 recruitment round

Olswang has deferred its September trainee intake and cancelled its 2013 London recruitment round to reduce the firm's trainee numbers due to "changes in client demand". The City firm's September 2011 trainees will now start their contracts in 2012, with the 2012 intake deferred until 2013. Meanwhile, the firm has called off its 2013 London recruitment round, with the next round of training contract vacancies delayed until September 2014 and March 2015. Deferred trainees will be offered the option to study an MA in Law at BPP.
3 minute read

International Edition

The conceits of the 'Johnny Come Latelies' in legal education

It is always a pleasure to be invited to 'guest' by my brother Charon QC, whose interest in matters legalo-philosophical and the rigours of academe is, to be generous, probably well past its sell-by date; an end hastened, ineluctably, by his taste for the grape, gin & mango juice and Marlboro cigarettes - hijacking his mind and his interests to the absurdities of the tabloids and the antics of academics and practitioners in what practitioners are still pleased to call the 'legal profession'. I overlook, with some distaste, his use of a noun as a verb in his badly-typed email of 2.45am this morning. I am a guest. I do not 'guest'.
6 minute read

International Edition

SRA adds five members to education and training committee ahead of review

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has appointed five external members to its education and training committee as the body gears up for the imminent wide-ranging review of the sector. The new appointments include Slaughter and May HR head Louise Meikle, the General Pharmaceutical Council's head of education and quality assurance Damian Day, and Chitra Karve, director of performance and development at the Parole Board.
2 minute read

International Edition

College of Law to offer two-year undergraduate law degree

The College of Law is to enter the undergraduate degree market with the launch of a two-year undergraduate law degree. The LLB degree, which will run initially in the College's London, Birmingham and Chester offices from September 2012, will see the College compete with mainstream universities for school-leavers.
2 minute read

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