You say lawyer, I say authorized legal services providers - Let's call the whole thing off

Professor Stephen Mayson, director of the Legal Services Institute, kicked off the event with a series of names illustrating the profound changes taking place in the legal market under the new ABS regime - Co-operative Legal Services, Burford Capital, Duke Street, Slater & Gordon, BT Claims, Riverview Law, Legal365.com - and the statement that “We are seeing the most profound change in the separation of the legal profession from the legal services market.

The two are no longer coterminous, they are now co-existent and possibly even concentric.”

He followed that up with a series of propositions: that the qualifying law degree is too prescriptive; that the LPC is not preparing people adequately for practise; that training contracts act as a barrier to entry; and CPD is discredited and ineffective in ensuring confidence in the legal profession.

His conclusion was that while the current system is not totally unfit for purpose it is not fit enough for its new purpose.

Some of the themes coming out of the discussion were the challenges of globalisation and barriers to access - themes echoed in some of the stories Lawyer2B has featured online this week with Eversheds championing access to the profession by rolling out a school leaver academy and offering its support to a new government careers portal while Herbert Smith is homing in on language students to provide some extra oomph to its global reach.

Unsurprisingly, the debate was intense and extensive while, following the latest issue of Lawyer2B which touched on many of the issues discussed, I kept my head well down.

christian.metcalfe@thelawyer.com

PS If you haven’t yet seen it, you can read the latest Lawyer2B magazine here.

PPS The JLD is holding a free event for LPC students on Saturday 17 March at BPP Leeds