SRA responds to demands to not delay LPC exams

The Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) has outlined the serious impact that coronavirus is having on junior lawyers, including Legal Practice Course (LPC) students, solicitor apprentices and trainee solicitors - adding to pressure that has forced the solicitors' regulator to respond.

In a letter to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), JLD Chair Charlotte Parkinson raised concerns about the regulator’s decision to postpone LPC exams rather than allow students to sit them from home. “There is no known timescale for [coronavirus] and its implications on society. It therefore seems unworkable to suggest a later timeframe to simply postpone exams until. An alternative solution must be found now,” she said.

The SRA had maintained that LPC exams must be supervised “to ensure integrity and security.” 

UPDATE: The SRA has cautiously bowed to junior lawyers' demands and says it will relax its supervision requirements for LPC exams, allowing assessments to be sat remotely. As the Law Gazette reports, supervision will still be necessary for core LPC exams, so the SRA is inviting applications from organisations that can provide online or remote exam supervision services. The regulator added that law schools "must apply to us for approval before making any changes to assessments".

The JLD highlighted the potentially serious problems faced by LPC students who are due to start training contracts in September 2020: “There is no guarantee that employers will grant trainee solicitors study leave to sit these exams. This would mean trainees required to sit LPC exams would have to take time off work, most likely unpaid or use up their annual leave.

“Employers may even postpone the training contract until the student has taken the LPC exams… meaning that the student is left with no job and consequently no income (alongside escalating debts) for an unknown period of time.”

Suggested solutions include allowing LPC exams to be sat remotely, with practical assessments conducted through video link.

The JLD said that solicitor apprentices face the same situation with their exams. Trainee solicitors have also raised concerns about the potential impact of prolonged social distancing on their training and supervision.

The letter urges: “It is imperative that current LPC students must have their LPC grade prior to September 2020. We therefore request that, in implementing a solution, current LPC providers must provide students who complete the course with their LPC grade by no later than 24 August 2020.”