Legal education: Is it producing the lawyers employers need?
The government, judiciary and profession have created a group to ensure that legal education, training and qualifications fit the demands of employers now and in the future.
The government also wants to ensure “the conveyancing workforce is equipped to support” its plans for home-buying reform.
The details are in the government’s jobs plan [1] for professional and business services (PBS), published last week.
The plan sets out a national framework for government and industry to work together to ensure the sector “has the workforce it needs to support long‑term economic growth, productivity and competitiveness across the UK”.
Across the PBS sector, it said, firms have committed to recruiting 22,400 new apprentices aged under 25 each year over the next five years, alongside a 20% increase in work experience opportunities for young people.
The plan underpins delivery of the Industrial Strategy published last year [2], which described the legal sector as “a national asset and an engine of economic growth”.
Its development was overseen by the Professional and Business Services Council, whose members include Law Society chief executive Ian Jeffery, Marion Smith KC for the Bar Council, senior partners from City firms Clifford Chance, Freshfields and Norton Rose Fulbright, and Christina Blacklaws, chair of the Lawtech Delivery Panel.
“While the PBS sector continues to demonstrate strength and resilience, it faces a set of persistent and interlinked workforce challenges that risk constraining future growth if left unaddressed,” the plan said.
These included an “ongoing shortage of highly skilled professionals, particularly in areas such as accountancy, legal services, management consultancy and data-intensive advisory roles”, and the pace of AI adoption, “which is reshaping roles faster than training can adapt and automating some tasks while complementing most”.
The government acknowledged that restricting funding of Level 7 apprenticeships – like the solicitor apprenticeship – to those aged under 22 has “led employers, particularly SMEs, to raise concerns about reduced access and progression pathways”.
The plan noted diversity issues in the legal sector, such as only 9% of workers being disabled – half the national average – and being “less representative by schooling background, with 20% attending an independent school (4% receiving a bursary), compared to just 7% of the UK population”.
It highlighted too the impact of offshoring in legal services, which it said was “increasingly driven by access to global talent, 24/7 delivery, and more efficient, technology-enabled processes, rather than cost alone”.
By offshoring routine tasks, this reduced entry-level opportunities, increased demand for higher skills, and placed “some downward pressure on mid-level wages”.
One major initiative in the legal sector, the plan said, was the legal education task and finish group set up by the new Judicial and Legal Diversity Board [3], which is co-chaired by the Lady Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellor.
“Bringing together government policy officials, legal services regulators, and bodies representing the legal professions, and drawing on input from wider sector partners, the group will consider whether legal education, training, and qualification pathways are supporting the skills, capacity, and diversity needed by the legal services sector and judiciary now and in the future.
“It will provide evidence-based recommendations for consideration by the board and relevant sector partners.”
Also represented on the board are the Judicial Appointments Commission, Bar Council, Law Society, CILEX and Legal Services Board.
The plan referred specifically to raising awareness of conveyancing careers.
“Conveyancers will be central to the successful delivery of the government’s recently announced home buying and selling reform roadmap [4]… [But] as with other parts of the legal services sector, conveyancers face increasing pressures as responsibilities have expanded and workloads have grown in recent years.”
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has pledged to work with Skills England, the Ministry of Justice and industry partners “to help ensure the conveyancing workforce is equipped to support the ambitious changes set out in the roadmap.
“This includes raising awareness of conveyancing careers, supporting skills development, and helping firms of all sizes to engage effectively with new requirements, processes, and technology.”
The jobs plan included pledges to support PBSs in exploring AI, pointing to the legal services AI Growth Lab [5] announced earlier this year, and highlighted PRIME – which looks to improve social mobility in the legal profession – and the Law Society’s Diversity and Access Scheme as examples of efforts to improve diversity.