2.132 The largest concerns among those who were critical of the system related to growing student numbers and the escalating cost of qualification. Despite the increase in fees, demand for undergraduate level law remains high and, anecdotally, a number of university law schools anticipate scope for further expansion. In conjunction with numbers graduating with a GDL this popularity has enabled the vocational education sector, and particularly the University of Law and BPP (the two largest private providers), to grow rapidly since the 1990s, even though only half of law graduates progress to vocational training. However, there are recent signs that a plateau has been reached with most providers now having excess capacity.58 The recent announcement by Oxford Brookes University that it intends to close its LPC course in 2014 may mark the start of shrinkage and consolidation of the LPC market. Nonetheless, despite excess capacity and contraction of the market, there are still currently more LPC graduates than training contracts, creating a further bottleneck in the system.
2.133 Numbers seeking access to the BPTC, despite the enormous difficulties of obtaining pupillage, continue to grow (Bar Council/BSB, 2012).
2.134 It is clear from analysis of the data that there is a significant level of concern, if not anger, among those who have invested much time and money in the initial stages of education and then been unable to find qualifying employment within the regulated sector. Respondents mentioned:
• lack of initial information about the likelihood of obtaining the right kind of employment;
• fears of - and experiences perceived to have involved - discrimination or unfair
disadvantage in recruitment, and particularly the perception that the system only ‘works’
for people with certain kinds of attributes (discussed further below);
• being left ‘in limbo’ with no recognisable status if an individual is unable to obtain the right kind of employment to qualify;
• potential for exploitation if entrants are required to undertake unpaid internships and/or lengthy periods as paralegals in the hope of obtaining the right kind of employment;
58 The SRA’s current information is that there are 9,626 full-time LPC places (as against 6,035 students enrolled in 2012/2013) and 2,854 part-time places (as against 2,793 students).
• lack of recognition of prior experience, and other disadvantages experienced by mature entrants.
2.135 The prospects for resolution of these issues need to be considered in the context of the structural changes now facing the sector, which are discussed further in Chapter 3.
2.136 The potential shift in balance between trainees and paralegals in law firms, and the impact on recruitment, is a key issue. There are reports of firms diverting recruitment substantially or entirely away from conventional training contracts, making the paralegal role a common point of entry, from which trainees could subsequently be selected according to need and capacity. Some evidence was obtained of firms making the process even more attenuated, so that those seeking work must first undertake an unpaid work placement or internship even to be considered for a paralegal role. This not only has implications for training
contracts, but for the development of at least part of the paralegal workforce, as LPC/BPTC paralegals step into roles that might previously have been filled by CILEx members or even unqualified clerks or secretaries.
2.137 Options, beyond paralegal work, for those seeking entry to the Bar are, if anything, more narrow given the number of BPTC graduates chasing a very small number of pupillages.
It is unlikely that, if implemented, proposals in the Burton Report (COIC, 2012) to create additional pupil numbers will make a significant difference. The likelihood of further attrition in the wake of changes to both legal aid and personal injury funding also cannot be ruled out.
2.138 In response to this situation respondents made the following suggestions:
• LPC places should be confined to those who have already obtained training contracts, as in Northern Ireland;
• vocational education for solicitors should be absorbed entirely into the workplace, supported if necessary by consortia of employers, and
• the BPTC could be confined to those who have already obtained pupillage, or be blended with pupillage in a model similar to that used by CILEx, supported perhaps by the Inns.
2.139 There was a lack of consensus about whether, if the regulation of periods of supervised practice were changed to allow employment in a broader range of contexts, this would enable more people to qualify. Some felt that the practice of employing paralegals with no guarantee of progression was now so common that employers would simply continue to hire paralegals rather than undertake the additional administration of a period of supervised practice. Others felt that the market for solicitors and barristers was unlikely to increase, but that different roles, or more paralegal roles would become the norm in any event. Some respondents, however, felt that there was an appetite, in some sectors (for example, in-house practice) to provide supervised practice where that is currently blocked.
2.140 Cost and bottlenecks obviously have implications for access, diversity and social mobility.
In Discussion Paper 02/2011, it was observed that the legal profession appears to be performing ‘well’ in terms of what might rather crudely be called ‘middle class’ diversity, but that social mobility was actually in decline. The paper concluded (para. 113):
In terms of access to the profession, the qualification process, requiring as it does a mix of strong credentials and ascriptive attributes, creates successive barriers to entry which tend significantly to reduce the opportunities for those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. There are unlikely to be ‘quick fixes’ to a problem that is, in many respects, shaped by intergenerational patterns of advantage and disadvantage.
rent Sy stem of Le g al Ser vices Educa tion and T raining
2.141 Despite the good intentions of some legal services sector employers, there are distinct barriers to entry into the legal professions, arguably more challenging than the barriers to entry to Higher Education generally. Place of study is highly relevant in accessing crucial vacation schemes and internships and obtaining training contracts and pupillage.59 2.142 Prospective applicants may be affected in two ways: those who lack the social and
economic capital to be able to take the risk of not succeeding may be deterred from competing at all60, and in a ‘buyer’s market’ employers may be averse to taking recruitment
‘risks’. One respondent thus described the recruitment process as ‘infected by a safe approach’.61
2.143 The professions’ strong preference for, and belief in, the reliability of academic results and credentials also comes out strongly in the quantitative data, as Table 2.10 demonstrates.
They look for ‘good A levels and a 2:1 from a good university’. 95% of respondents to the survey, on average, thought that academic qualifications were a reliable system for determining access to professional education.62
Table 2.10: Pre-entry qualifications; reliability of using results from secondary, further or higher education, or specially administered tests, to determine access to professional education and training
Weighted (barristers, solicitors, CILEx members, and weighted average) and unweighted (all respondents).
2.144 This can be juxtaposed against a number of responses that recognised the importance of diversity, and demonstrated commitment to diversity initiatives such as PRIME. However, there was limited evidence, in responses to Discussion Paper 02/2011, as to the amount of difference such initiatives will actually make to the workplace. As a student focus group participant observed:
59 Shiner and Newburn, (1995).
60 The background evidence for this is discussed more fully in Chapter 7 of the Literature Review.
61 Paralegal, online survey.
62 Unweighted data.
COMPLETEL
Y RELIABLE RELIABLE
SOMEWHA
T RELIABLE NO-EFFECT
SOMEWHA
T UNRELIABLE UNRELIABLE
COMPLETEL
Y UNRELIABLE MISSING
Barristers 0.3% 0.6% 0.6% 1.6% 1.6% 20.9% 56.6% 17.7%
Solicitors 0.0% 0.0% 0.6% 3.1% 1.8% 29.8% 49.4% 15.3%
CILEx members 0.6% 0.0% 0.6% 0.0% 1.2% 18.6% 46.6% 32.3%
Weighted Average 0.3% 0.1% 0.6% 1.7% 1.6% 24.1% 50.0% 21.5%
All Respondents 0.3% 0.3% 0.7% 1.9% 2.0% 24.2% 51.6% 19.1%
There are a few diversity access schemes and bursaries, but through my research, it seems to me that you’ve got to be kind of exceptionally bright and from a really poor background, as in you know gone through foster care and the only person in your family to go to university and things like that.
2.145 There were some responses which identified ways in which institutions and employers might go further:
... performance (more than A-Level and tertiary-level achievement), is an accurate indicator of a student’s employment and social mobility prospects, we suggest deeper, sustained and more meaningful contact with students, parents and teachers, at this stage, as opposed to more superficial contact afforded by some current work-experience initiatives.
Freshfields response to Discussion Paper 02/2011
2.146 Although the Bar and solicitors look for excellence in academic qualifications and are risk averse in selecting pupils and trainees; CILEx members, costs lawyers and licensed conveyancers are far more socially diverse occupations. The impact on these professions of an influx of graduates who cannot get into the Bar and solicitors’ professions might well affect this social diversity. Further, if those graduates see these roles essentially as stepping stones to other ‘more prestigious’ licensed titles that might also cause perturbations in the market beyond. The significance of newly emerging apprenticeships also needs to be factored in, as these may be seen as a more viable way of increasing diversity at entry level,63 and, by attracting government funding at least at the outset, they have obvious attractions to employers. All of these developments have some further effect on the make-up of the unregulated sector, which is discussed in Chapter 3.