College of Law loses out in favoured schools' list

THE COLLEGE of Law has been sidelined at a crucial stage in the Bar Council's move to end the Inns of Court School of Law's monopoly by farming out training to other institutions.

The college is absent from a list of eight institutions drawn up by the Bar. These institutions, according to the Bar, have the best chance of winning validation when its training monopoly ends in 1997.

As part of the tendering process the Bar Council has divided the 15 applications to run the course into three bandings.

Among the eight institutions in the first band, which are "likely to be validated", are Nottingham Trent University, the University of the West of England and Cardiff Law School, London-based BPP Law School and the Inns of Court School of Law.

The College of Law is one of two institutions in the second band of colleges who "may be validated". The six in the third band are unlikely to succeed if they pursue their applications.

The College of Law's omission from the top list will be seen as a sign of the Bar's determination to keep solicitors and barristers' training separate. Former Law Society president Tony Holland, a College of Law governor, lobbied for a merger between the society and the Bar's law schools during his presidency. But last year's Bar chair Peter Goldsmith QC rejected common training.