Legal education and training
‘We will press on with our ‘robust review’ of legal education and training’ , David Gilbertson, CILEx Regulation board member, tells legal policy forum conference. Polly Botsford reports from Glaziers Hall in London.
Addressing stakeholders in legal education and training, including training providers, lawyers and regulators, David Gilbertson, a CILEx Regulation board member, told the recent annual conference run by the Westminster Legal Policy Forum - which focused on competency, innovation and diversity - that CILEx Regulation will continue its assessment of its education and training framework.
Alongside representatives from the other main legal services regulators, the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (SRA) and the Bar Standards Board (BSB), David Gilbertson outlined the tasks ahead for CILEx Regulation following its reforms in 2013, when it revised the CILEx competence framework and developed its ‘Day One outcomes’ .
Since the reforms, CILEx Regulation’s agenda encompasses four main areas, said David Gilbertson: ‘Considering the effectiveness of our approach to assessments; looking at streamlining the process of assessment whilst assuring standards are maintained; looking at the possibility of creating streamlined pathways ... to enable paralegals to become Chartered Legal Executives and CILEx Practitioners, without the need for unnecessary duplication of evidence; and CILEx Regulation will be working with the other regulators to create pathways to move between practice areas.’
... significant changes [are proposed] following the joint Legal Education and Training Review
The conference heard that both the SRA and the BSB are also proposing significant changes following the joint Legal Education and Training Review, an evidence-based review published in June 2013 involving CILEx Regulation, the SRA and the BSB.
The SRA has launched its own consultation on a new proposed solicitors qualifying examination (SQE), which will be a centralised assessment for all those wanting to become solicitors. The BSB also announced, in October 2015, that it would be instigating a new programme to reshape education and training of barristers with its ‘Future Bar Training’ initiative.
Concerns were raised among delegates about the cost consequences of any changes being proposed and the confusing nature of the different pathways to being a lawyer as well as the number of different regulators. David Gilbertson commented: ‘For as long as there are individual areas, we‘ll need to have individual regulators – and their job is to work in the public interest, not in the interests of the regulated.’
The conference also heard comments about maintaining the importance of ethical standards among the profession. Vicky Purtill, director of education at CILEx, who was also a speaker at the conference, explained how she believes that training in ethics and integrity are part and parcel of CILEx’s 2013 reforms: ‘In terms of ethics for CILEx members we did recognise in 2013 that it was important that ethics was included, which is why we made it a compulsory element of the CPD scheme. And also we will be looking again at how ethics is embedded through both the knowledge and vocational stages as well as tested again through the work based learning elements of qualification as a Chartered Legal Executive.’
Stressing the importance of legal education and training in the round for the profession, Baroness Deech, former chairperson of the BSB, who chaired part of the conference, said: ‘If you get the education right, the profession can take care of itself.’