Setting Standards: The future of legal services education and training regulation in England and Wales

Abstract

This is the final report of the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) research phase, which has been undertaken on behalf of the Bar Standards Board (BSB), ILEX Professional Standards (IPS) and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). It is the first sector-wide review of legal services since the Ormrod Report of 1971 (Report of the Committee on Legal Education, Cmnd 4595).

This report has been commissioned as the first stage of a wide-ranging review process that is designed to ensure that England and Wales has a system of legal services education and training (LSET) that is fit for the future, and one that advances the regulatory objectives of the Legal Services Act 2007 in the interests of society, consumers and justice.

The Review takes place against the backdrop of a legal services sector experiencing an unprecedented period of change, which has the potential over the next two decades to transform the shape of the legal services market. Global economic conditions and increasing competition will continue to provide a challenging and uncertain context for the international and domestic markets. Market liberalisation and funding reforms in the domestic legal services sector are transforming the face of consumer legal services, and influencing buyer behaviour, shaped by technological and demographic changes. These influences are already driving technological, role and process innovations within legal services, innovations with which LSET must keep pace.

The remit of the research phase has therefore been to develop a set of recommendations that will ensure three things. First, that the individual legal services providers of the future have the knowledge, skills and professional attributes to meet present and future needs of business, consumers and the public interest. Secondly, education and training providers are supported by regulation in delivering LSET that ensures the initial and continuing competence of practitioners, and thirdly, that employers have the flexibility to develop their workforce to deliver an effective and professional service to their clients.