Law Society hits back at LETR

While acknowledging calls for greater flexibility in the provision of legal training, the Law Society has insisted that the rigorous standards of the current system must be maintained in its response to the latest discussion paper from the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR). The discussion paper had previously set out the argument that the current system of legal education and training needs to be changed if it is to equip lawyers with the necessary skills to practise in the future legal services market.

The Law Society has argued that existing legal training pathways effectively enable people to become solicitors in a relatively condensed period of time, and registered disappointment that the regulatory framework that binds lawyers after qualification was not given enough weight. However, it recognised the need for developing alternative routes based along the same standards. Meanwhile, the LETR research team received criticism for not affording enough consideration to equality and diversity matters in their work.

Law Society president Lucy Scott-Moncrieff said: "Alternative routes of entry into the legal profession are essential in order to enable new entrants to gain qualification through a modularised and work-based learning approach, since the costs of education and training through graduate routes continue to rise. It is disappointing that the LETR team decided not to address equality, diversity and social mobility in this final discussion paper. These issues are central to any discussion around routes into the profession, and to any serious consideration of how to make legal education and training more accessible. Equality, diversity and social mobility are fundamental factors for all the options and recommendations and have informed the Law Society's response."