hrtraining

A former fixed-share partner at south-coast law firm Lester Aldridge has lost his appeal against a ruling that he was a partner and not an employee in the limited liability partnership and so unable to claim unfair dismissal.

The solicitors’ training contract should be abolished and frontline regulators compelled to co-operate on standards of training for reserved activities, a legal think tank argues in a report published this week.

Concerns over a worsening diversity picture at the Bar have prompted the Bar Standards Board to consider making aspects of its guidelines on diversity mandatory. The news came as research published by the Law Society showed that significant obstacles still face women and ethnic minorities in accessing the upper reaches of the solicitors’ profession.

Growing student debt means the length of time would-be lawyers spend studying needs to shrink, the chairman of the Legal Services Board has declared. David Edmonds also floated the idea of adopting the accountants’ training model, in which professional training takes place during full-time employment, while appearing to throw cold water on the idea of aptitude testing for students before they begin postgraduate legal education.

The three biggest legal regulators have set out the terms of their two-year joint review of education and training. The review – being undertaken by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Bar Standards Board and ILEX Professional Standards – will examine the educational requirements placed upon individuals entering the sector and their regulatory function.

Universities minister David Willetts has expressed interest in aptitude testing as a way to address “inequities in earlier educational experience” for those looking to enter the professions, it has emerged. The news comes as a survey released today shows that having a public school education makes it seven times more likely you will become a legal professional than if you are state-educated.

Legal Services Board chief executive Chris Kenny has spoken out in favour of the “holy grail” of diversity neutral aptitude testing across legal careers. Addressing a legal education conference at Harvard University in America – one of the first times the LSB has seriously addressed its role in legal education – Mr Kenny also hit out at lawyers who see their ethical training as creating “a wall of professional exclusivity”.

Regulators should consider making diversity training mandatory for senior partners and line managers in law firms, say academics after research uncovered a complex web of barriers between minorities and women, and the upper reaches of the legal profession. The findings will be backed up by a forthcoming study into pay disparity by the Law Society that has uncovered “a kind of structural inequality”.

The Law Society is considering introducing an aptitude test for entry onto the legal practice course that will reduce student numbers, Legal Futures can reveal. Other initiatives being examined are a “warts and all” guide to qualification as a solicitor and incentives for firms to provide training contracts.

Patricia Wheatley Burt of Trafalgar looks at the demands on managing partners and how to avoid placing law firm leaders too much at the whim of the partnership.

So-called virtual law firms are increasing in number and profile as lawyers look for other ways to practice. But their model may not suit big-hitting City lawyers who need greater support and status. However, says Mike Jones of Intrinsic Values, there is a new alternative that benefits both solicitors and firms

With the Legal Services Act reforms on the horizon, Colin Loth, Manager of Legal at international recruitment consultants Badenoch & Clark, discusses the impact the Act will have on the job market and talented legal professionals.

Patricia Wheatley Burt (FCIPD), a director of Legal Futures Associate Trafalgar, argues that firms need to develop strategies to retain older lawyers, for everyone’s benefit.