Changes in legal education

Bernardette Griffin, The Law Society

This paper considers the outside influences which may be the key drivers for change in relation to the education and training of the legal profession.

Key drivers

Identified key drivers for change which are likely to affect the legal profession presently and in the future are:

• ICT
• access to capital
• social and economic trends
• political trends
• globalisation
• decline in the number of firms providing legal and funding
• professional competition within and without
• the growth of salaried and employed solicitors

Some, if not all, of the above will have long term effects on legal education and training and the shape of the profession in the future, but the scope of this paper is limited to certain of the above drivers and their impact.

Developments in information and communications technology

Technological developments have brought about considerable change in the methods of delivering legal education and the pace at which students learn. Professor Richard Susskind in his book The future of the law says that we should think less of clients and of lawyers but instead of “users, legal information engineers and providers of legal information”, and that the role of lawyers should be redefined:

“First, as enabling techniques and leading applications are refined, much of today’s conventional legal work will be routinised and proceduralised and then made available on the information infrastructure as a consultative service. The second dimension is potentially much more significant and this is the realisation of a vast, latent legal market the countless instances in domestic and business life which would benefit from legal input but where this had been impractical or too costly to achieve in the past.”

Advances in ICT over the next decade are likely to impact greatly on the legal profession. Examples of such impact may be:

• Dictaphones and typists will become obsolete.
• Video becomes routine. Integration of TV,
• Internet use, e-mail and telephones into an Internet highway.

Firms will be able to reduce their servicing staff. Presently, fee earners amount to less than half of the staff in solicitors’ firms (81,979 out of 175,853 in 1996-97). By reducing servicing staff the profitability of fee-earners will be increased.

Automation of more routine legal processes. For example, conveyancing will be transformed by video links between client and conveyancer, electronic searches and interaction with the Land Registry and other parties.

Electronic communication may change the culture of business. ICT will provide clients with more instant access to their lawyer, which may in turn increase their demands and expectations. There may be a need for more senior specialist advisors.

ICT may increase the need for lawyers to be successful project managers. Clients may have easier access to ICT legal information kiosks while shopping, but may still need a lawyer who manages the whole transaction or package, for example a conveyancer who deals with everything including the removal vans.

The impact of the ICT revolution on legal education and training is the move away from the mere expectation that some students will have ICT skills when entering the vocational stage of training to the requirement that students have ICT skills which meet specified outcomes when exiting the programme. The expectation of the profession is that trainees will have greater ICT skills in the year 2000 than those of 1993 in order to adapt to increasing ICT challenges and their implications. Recently, Legal Practice Course (LPC) providers were presented with an ICT outcomes statement in order to ensure that trainees were exposed to certain use of ICT on the programme as part of the learning process and assessment.

Social and economic trends

The middle income band of the population are also likely to have an affect on the future shape of the profession, its specialism and skills. The middle income group will increase in the future and may, therefore, be more disposed to use legal services. As a result financial services, conditional fees (likely to increase because of the reduction in the availability of legal aid to this section of the population) and probate work will probably increase.

However, with the changing needs of the client market and also the greater awareness of consumers in relation to client care, this raises the need to ensure that client care training is present, emphasised and relevant. Also, the government impact on legal service provision and regulation may be of relevance here. The Institute of Chartered Accountants expressed their recognition that:

“Businesses and governments will come under increasing pressure to become more accountable as a new ‘audit society’ demands external performance reviews and greater transparencies…the rise of consumerism, coupled with the contracting out or privatisation of public services, is also increasing the demand for greater openness and accountability among those purchasers and providers of those services.”

Global v domestic legal services

There are alrady a number of English lawyers competing internationally, and to a large extent English lawyers are competing with lawyers from the US. The Times stated that there is a strategic battle going on between the US and English lawyer:

“Much of the trend is being driven by the leading investment banks which are seeking to exploit their new found ability to structure deals under the law of almost any country. It just happens that, in the vast majority of cases, they opt for the British or US legal systems, depending on which is the most accommodating.”

As a minimum figure calculated for 1996-97 the published figure for overseas earnings by the UK legal profession yielded a net surplus of £644 million. Predominantly, this work is undertaken by City firms. The large firms (defined as 26+ partners) already employ one third of all solicitors, and just over 100 firms provide one third of all practising certificate income. The Law Society is aware of the differing needs of the profession, whilst wishing to ensure that legal training does provide sufficient common training to enable flexibility. It is interesting to note that the Institute of Chartered Accountants recognises the increasing needs for specialism after a common learning stage, with common professional development training enhancing that specialism.

Effect of the decline in legal aid work

A reflection of the times is the reduction of the percentage of solicitors’ income resulting from legal aid work. The prediction has been a growth in the size and a reduction in the number of legal aid firms. This is not just because of franchising, but because legal aid has been a declining area over recent years compared with five years ago. In the recent
Panel study of solicitors’ firms conducted by the National Centre for Social Research legal aid firms were asked to select the option which best described their objectives for legal aid work (excluding personal injury work) over the next three years. The options were:

• to increase the percentage of fee income from legal aid
• to decrease the percentage of fee income from legal aid
• to keep the percentage of fee income from legal aid about the same
• to cease to do legal aid work
• undecided

The chart below shows the percentage of firms falling into each of these categories.

Almost a third of sole practitioners described themselves as intending to give up legal aid work, while a quarter intended an increase in this type of work. In the case of 2-4 partner firms, 16 per cent intended to give up legal aid work, while 43 per cent planned an increase. Again, the work of the above illustrates changes within the legal profession and the regulation of the profession by other bodies such as the Legal Aid Board.

Competition from within and without

The government’s policy on rights of audience suggests that solicitors may be able to absorb some of the advocacy market. However, the greatest value of advocacy work to the solicitor may not necessarily be a financial but a status benefit.

ILEX now has rights of audience, and work undertaken by paralegals may eat into the solicitors’ market. It may be that paralegals with ICT skills may replace more experienced staff or, on the other hand, developments in technology may replace the need for less skilled individuals and paralegals carrying out routine work may disappear.

Competition from other professions such as accountants, particularly in relation to international work, is emerging as a threat to lawyers. Multi-disciplinary partnerships are seen as beneficial and raising the status of accountants globally. The Head of Price Waterhouse’s European Union Law Unit in Brussels stated “we are not some kind of secondary citizen here…we’re doing more commercial agreements, M&A work and capital markets. The hope is to expand.”

Future direction

The above drivers impact on legal education and training in requiring students who are not only ready to meet the changing demands of the legal profession, but also the changing demands in business, accountancy and financial services, the control by outside bodies such as the Legal Aid Board and the impact of government requirements.

In relation to legal training there is a need:

• to ensure that ICT awareness and developments are kept under review within training
• to consider whether increased training in project management at the pre-admission stage is required

Currently working groups are considering the feasibility of project management within the LPC and PSC. So far the views are that project management is essential to a solicitor’s work, but that such emphasis should be during the training contract, the PSC electives and post-admission.

As highlighted earlier, the increase in the middle income band of the population will possibly increase contentious work. Risk assessment and risk management is an integral part of litigation work, but should be relevant to all areas of legal work where there are differing outcomes to explain to the client and the necessity to discuss costs with the client in relation to the possible success of the case. The Law Society has considered the Management Charter Initiative’s national standards covering a number of different management responsibilities, and is using them as the framework for the development of management skills for the profession. This has also proved useful in dealing with the Legal Aid Board, for example, which also uses the standards as a reference point in looking at levels of supervisory skills. By looking at the standards of other bodies his can assist in the future of legal training, particularly in respect of management development including risk assessment and client care.

Client care is currently present in legal education and training programmes, but needs to have its importance heightened. One may pose the question as to whether client care should be part of the content of a degree programme as part of a graduate’s skills.

There is also a need to increase the exposure of students and graduates in their training to commercial and business awareness, so that they are more aware of the context in which they are or will be operating and have a better understanding of clients such as banks.The difficulty may be that until students have experience of the legal workplace any such awareness may be artificial. The Institute of Chartered Accountants has acknowledged the increased emphasis on communication skills, ICT and commercial awareness, and has produced a guide to performance criteria in these three skills. Questionnaires have gone out to the legal profession, LPC providers and trainees in relation to commercial awareness, Presently it is felt that students should be aware of the commercial context, but not as a separate LPC module.

Finally, solicitors of the future will need flexibility of thought and approach, as well as a training regime training which reflects changes in practice. Diversity or specialism in a profession can be accommodated within an educational and training framework which also embraces a common stage.

Last Modified: 12 July 2010