No barriers
Incoming CILEX President Matthew Huggett reflects on his journey into the law, CILEX’s continued efforts to break down barriers for its members and why CILEX Lawyers should get involved in Pro-Bono Week this November
Time flies. It seems like only yesterday that I was sat at a desk at Bristol City College at the beginning of my CILEX journey, yet here I am 19 years later, writing to you as president.
And what an exciting time it is to be stepping into the role. CILEX is at the forefront of shaking up the legal profession, changing mindsets and making important inroads at government level.
Like so many of our members, I went to the local state school, had not been to university and did not have parents working in the profession. My father joined the Navy at 15 and my mother did not work. I had no ambition – or to be more precise, no expectation – that I could become a lawyer. It wasn’t until I was working in human resources that I began to see the job I wanted to do, which was to become an employment law adviser. I began to appreciate that I would need to become legally qualified.
To complete the solicitor or barrister routes into the law, I would have had to give up my job – something that simply wasn’t possible for me. CILEX offered a route into the law that others did not. It gave me the opportunity to do the job I wanted to do and provided a lifeline.
We are proud of the diversity of our members and that we provide access to the legal profession to everyone. We have no barriers. It doesn’t matter what your background is. It doesn’t matter that your parents can’t afford university. We don’t place obstacles in the way, we remove them.
Our big ask of employers is for them to judge CILEX members on what they do. Judge us on the quality of the work that we undertake. Don’t make presumptions about the route we have taken. Don’t place us at a disadvantage simply because we didn’t qualify as a solicitor.
Fighting for parity
As well as engaging with employers, we are putting significant efforts into our work to provide parity for all CILEX Lawyers. That means putting significant resources into our representation activities to challenge the legislation that still discriminates against CILEX Lawyers.
We are challenging the current rules of eligibility for a number of judicial appointments which are not open to our members and have made important progress on removing the current bar on CILEX Lawyers certifying powers of attorney. There is now a private member’s bill going before Parliament in December and we are hopeful that this will not be opposed and that we will secure this change.
We are also working with the Law Society and the government to gain CILEX Lawyers admittance into the Law Society’s criminal litigation accreditation scheme, which will allow CILEX Lawyers to act as duty solicitors in criminal matters.
Future regulation
You will no doubt have read about CILEX’s review of how our members are regulated. Our ‘Case for Change’ is set out in detail on our website and has been the subject of a number of webinars that I have held with my colleagues over recent weeks.
I promised members when undertaking our recent webinars that we would provide an update following our most recent board meeting. However, the Legal Services Board (LSB) is currently considering matters between CILEX and CILEx Regulation Ltd, which we welcome. But what that means is that we are unable to provide any further update at this time.
Like you, I am keen to progress this matter and await guidance from the LSB. Things may be delayed a little, but we will communicate at the earliest opportunity once the LSB process is concluded.
Practice rights
As part of the work that we are doing to achieve parity with solicitors, it is important that as many Chartered Legal Executives as possible take up the opportunity to obtain practice rights. This is the final piece of the jigsaw, allowing all Fellows of CILEX to be able to say, in law, that we have the same rights as a solicitor.
“This is the final piece of the jigsaw, allowing all Fellows of CILEX to be able to say, in law, that we have the same rights as a solicitor”
This is a key part of our strategy to remove all the remaining, and often archaic, barriers in legislation that sit between what we can do as Chartered Legal Executives and what solicitors can do. The practice rights scheme is operated by CILEx Regulation, rather than CILEX and will permit anyone who completes the practice rights process to work unsupervised in reserved practice areas.
See our detailed Q&A for further details.
Pro Bono Week
Finally, I would like to bring to your attention that Pro Bono Week this year takes place between 7 and 11 November. This is a landmark in the legal calendar where we recognise the importance of individuals being able to access justice. This is a principle that is close to CILEX’s heart. We have worked closely with the Access to Justice Foundation for many years and Pro Bono Week is an opportunity for us to all consider ‘giving back’ some time and expertise for those who are not fortunate enough to be able to afford legal support.
At a time when the system of funding of legal advice is under so much pressure, I would commend everyone to consider whether there is anything they can do to contribute.
Further information is available at https://probonoweek.org.uk/
I am looking forward to working with you all over the coming year. And please, if you do have anything you want to ask or if there is any comment or observation that you would like to make, email me at matthew.huggett@cilex.org.uk.