21 November 2007
JSB, Millbank Tower, Millbank, London
Bridget Prentice spoke at the Legal Services Consultative Panel standing conference on legal education about implications of the Legal Services Act for legal education and training.
Thank you Sir Martin; I'm delighted to be invited back to speak at this year's conference following all the useful advice provided in the last two years.
The theme of today's conference is the legal profession in 2015 - I think it's right for us to look forward and consider how the changes we make today will benefit tomorrow's profession. So it's obviously appropriate that I start today's proceedings by talking about the new Legal Services Act, which will shape the way legal services are delivered to the consumer.
But I also want to touch on diversity as I'm conscious that the last time I spoke at this conference I had just launched our diversity work. I want to take this opportunity to update you on what we've being doing in the past two years, as the people delivering legal services in the future are vital to its success.
As many of you here will know, the Legal Services Act received Royal Assent on the 30th October, and the focus is now on implementing this landmark piece of legislation. I believe that the Act represents an enormous step forward for consumers, creating a new legal landscape that consumers can navigate with confidence and ease. But it also provides for real and lasting change in the legal sector - change that will create significant opportunities for the legal profession going forward.
Particular emphasis is placed on high quality education and training under the existing system of regulation. These high standards will be equally important under the new framework. There are new challenges on the horizon and education and training will need to adapt to meet those challenges. The Act recognises this, and builds on the excellent work of the Legal Services Consultative Panel to ensure that providers maintain the highest standards in education and training.
Legal Services Board
The Act makes three key reforms, which I am sure you're already familiar with. The Act establishes a new independent oversight regulator, the Legal Services Board - 'the LSB'. It also establishes an Office for Legal Complaints, which will benefit consumers by ensuring quality and transparency in complaints handling. And it allows for Alternative Business Structures, creating opportunities for different types of lawyers and non-lawyers to work together.
Today I want to focus on two of those reforms which I think will be of particular interest to you: the LSB, and Alternative Business Structures, or as they are widely known, ABSs.
The new oversight regulator, the LSB, will be responsible for setting clear standards for the legal sector in all areas of regulation. But during the debates in Parliament a strong argument was made for making it clearer that education and training should be a top priority for the LSB. I was persuaded very much by those arguments. As a result, the final Act places the LSB under a specific duty to assist in the maintenance and development of standards in legal education and training.
In practice this will mean that the LSB will have to work with approved regulators, like the Law Society, the Bar Council and the Institute of Legal Executives, to ensure that the quality of education and training remains high.
There will also be a clear set of objectives - the principles that will underpin all regulation in the legal sector. They will include encouraging an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession, and increasing the public's understanding of their legal rights and duties. High standards in education and training will be at the core of achieving those objectives and making sure that both the profession and consumers are properly equipped for the future.
Alternative Business Structures
These are exciting times! And one of the most innovative reforms in the Act is the development of ABSs, which will give you and others in the profession the chance to explore new ways to increase the scope and scale of business. They will open up opportunities for different types of lawyers and non-lawyers to work together and for the provision of external investment.
But how will these benefits be realised? I expect that full ABSs will not be permitted before 2011. Though through your advice, the Act does provide for a limited form of ABS to emerge before then, which will allow up to 25% non-lawyer managers to work in firms which provide only legal services. We are already working closely with the Law Society, and other regulators like them, so that we can deliver these important reforms as soon as possible.
Legal Education
So, I believe the Act will deliver a new future fit for a modern legal profession. But I know that many of you are concerned about the future of legal education and training and, in particular, whether or not there will be a forum for you to put your views forward once the LSB is established. That will ultimately be something for the new regulator to decide, and I have no doubt that your expertise and experience will be invaluable to the future of legal services. But there are ways that you can help make sure that legal education remains high on the LSB's agenda.
The first is by engaging positively with the new chair of the LSB when he or she is appointed. Work has already started on this and I hope that some of you'll have seen the recent advert for the post. One of the first tasks for the chair will be to meet and greet a number of stakeholders, and I recommend that you take that opportunity to share your knowledge of education and training in the legal sector, and to discuss with the Chair how best to develop this area of regulation.
Secondly, experience in, or knowledge of, legal education and legal training is something that the Lord Chancellor must have regard to when making appointments to the LSB. This is essential in ensuring that we have a system where the oversight regulator responsible for maintaining standards and setting requirements for education and training is actually qualified to do so.
By working with the LSB you'll have a real chance to influence decisions from the beginning and to contribute to the regulation of the future. The recruitment process for members is due to start in January, and I hope that some of you here today will seriously consider applying to become members.
Effective training and education is one way of ensuring we have a profession that's strong, capable and efficient, and as I've said since we started this work it is my aim to put the consumer at the heart of the legal service and this will mean greater consumer confidence. Just as important in increasing consumer confidence is having a legal profession that is representative of the society it serves. To do that we need to encourage greater diversity within the profession.
Many of you here today will remember that two years ago I spoke at this conference and launched a report setting out our plans to encourage diversity in the legal profession. And as we're talking about the future, I want to update you on the work that we're doing and that I hope will shape the legal profession.
Diversity
When I launched the department's diversity work I told you that I'd written to the top 100 firms and top 30 chambers asking them to publish their diversity statistics and equality and diversity policies on their websites.
Well since then we've increased this to the top 200 firms and top 60 chambers and those of you with an interest in diversity may have seen the results in 'The Lawyer', which has named and shamed those who have and haven't published.
At the start of this process we managed to bring together different people from different positions, comparing this with the difficulties we've had in diversity, we now know which is harder. The results have been disappointing with some firms saying they are reluctant to publish staff data because they're concerned about revealing details of their workforce; or they just don't think it's a worthwhile exercise. My response is to query whether the firms in question really share concerns about anonymised data publication; or whether the real issue is embarrassment about what those figures would show.
I've said before that this isn't about gathering statistics or producing league tables. It's about giving a clear picture of your firm - identifying gaps, looking for potential barriers and implementing effective policies.
But despite the poor response from firms, I hope the exercise has not been an entirely wasted one. The initiative has helped to highlight the issues. However though, change needs to come from you: you the firms, you the professional bodies and you the academic institutions.
An encouraging sign is that external pressure, in particular from large corporate consumers, this has snowballed in the last two years and if you refuse, you will be bowled over by that snowball. This is also helping to push for change.
Working Group
Having recognised that letter writing might not be the best approach, I also established a working group and charged it with looking at how we might help drive forward diversity issues.
The group's aim was to identify ways to remove barriers, both to entering and progressing within the profession - and its final report was published in November of last year. The working group made 18 recommendations aimed at academic institutions, firms and chambers, the legal professional bodies and the Government.
In addition to their own knowledge of the profession, they asked for feedback from the different diversity networks, unsurprisingly a lot of similar themes emerged.
I don't want to talk through all the recommendations, as the report itself is available on the MOJ website. A lot of the recommendations are aimed at the profession itself, but there are some recommendations that will interest the legal academics amongst you and may encourage you to consider what you can do to promote diversity.
One of the key issues highlighted by the working group was the issue of managing law students' expectations. It's important to give people more information about how to pursue a career in law. This includes the reality of actually working in law; the skills and attributes needed to secure a job; what to do should students be unsuccessful in that career; and what alternatives there are to the traditional routes into the profession.
I was concerned when feedback to the working group showed that many students don't know about alternative routes into the profession and the opportunities offered by bodies like the Institute of Legal Executives until they are actually in the profession itself.
Those were some of the reasons behind the 'Routes into the Profession' leaflet that I published last year. However, I would like to see more being done jointly by the profession and universities and colleges to help manage students' expectations.
Those of you teaching law play a large and important role in guiding, supporting and encouraging the lawyers of tomorrow. It's vital that they know what they need to do to achieve success in their chosen career.
I also want to encourage you to look at ways of increasing the diversity of students. I know that some law schools are using admission tests but there is still some debate about whether or not they aid or act as a barrier to encouraging diversity. I know you don't want to compromise on quality but encouraging greater diversity and not relying purely on A level results doesn't mean you have to. Academic ability alone does not guarantee success.
I know that you'll be under pressure from the profession itself to ensure that students will not only have a comprehensive knowledge of the law itself, but that they will also be able to demonstrate the skills and qualities that firms and chambers are looking for.
It's very easy for the profession to say they're concerned about the skills demonstrated by students but what are they doing to inform the institutions? Are they providing anything for you to use as a guide? If not why not and does it need increased consideration by the profession and the training providers so that students are better prepared for entering the profession?
Balancing the profession's needs and those of students will be a challenge especially as the legal services landscape develops further. I hope that today's forum provides an opportunity for you all to discuss those challenges in more detail.
Conclusion
Let me finish by saying that this is an important and exciting time for the legal sector. I see the Legal Services Act as a fantastic opportunity to improve a system that, prior to this legislation, has not been updated in over a decade. I am absolutely confident that these reforms will lead to increased consumer choice and flexibility, and greater efficiencies in the delivery of legal services. I also hope that it will lead to an increase in training and employment opportunities and attract a wider entry of students to the profession. I look forward to hearing your views.
Thank you very much.