In brief: In-house lawyers

In-house lawyers will be able to train for their own qualification from the year 2000 under plans drawn up by the Law Society's commerce and industry group (C&I). The group aims to introduce a programme of up to 20 modules, that will include management and presentational skills, managing budgets and time-management. Lawyers will be able to "dip in and out of the course", says C&I chairman Paul Gilbert. C&I is carrying out a review of its training with the management programmes unit of the Centre for Dispute Resolution.