THE TFR IN ACTION: LPC COURSES

The Law Society Regulation Board ("LSRB") has now released its paper detailing the first stages of reform under the Training Framework Review.  The first item on the reform agenda - LPC Courses.

The  LSRB paper, "Legal Practice Courses: Framework for Authorisation, Delivery and Assessment" is available online through the Law Society Website.

LSRB PROPOSALS

The LSRB have made the following proposals for the regulation of LPC courses.  The proposals are now subject to consultation, and will be reviewed again by the LSRB before implementation (scheduled for 2008). 

The major thing to note is that the LPC will still be a mandatory course for anyone wishing to qualify as a solicitor.

The Law Society will ensure that the LPC courses are of an appropriate quality, allowing students to meet prescribed outcomes at the end of the LPC which lead into the Day One Outcomes.  

A statement of assumed prior knowledge for students starting an LPC course will be published by the Law Society. 

The key regulatory role for the Law Society Regulation Board (“LRSB”) is to achieve consistency of the learning outcomes and demonstration of minimum standards.  It will do this by monitoring and authorising courses, based on set criteria. The form of the courses will be free for the course provider to design. The criteria are as follows: 

• Design, organisation and delivery of the curriculum;
• Professional requirements;
• Adequate learning resources; and
• Assessment arrangements 

Students could take informed decisions about where they wish to study. 

The learning outcomes would be suited to the Day One Outcomes. However, the course content itself will not change due to the continued use of the written standards for each of the areas studied. The structure of the new LPC would be as follows:

• Compulsory areas of business law and practice, property and litigation. The current LPC written standard to continue.
• Skills development (i.e. writing and drafting, research, interviewing and advocacy) The current written standards will continue.
• Pervasive subjects will continue (i.e. professional conduct, client care and accounts, financial services, human rights and EU and revenue law). Again, the current written standards will continue. 

The LSRB would continue to prescribe the assessment requirements for LPC courses. Skills will continue to be assessed in practice, however, skills such as legal writing, research and interviewing will be assessed in the context of each subject and therefore be assessed throughout the course. 

Advocacy will remain a discrete skill, which will be assessed discretely. 

Exemptions from parts of the LPC will be available for those who are already competent. These will be assessed on an individual basis. Exemptions will be granted to those students who have passed assessments in learning outcomes equivalent to parts of the LPC. Criteria used will be published by the LSRB in due course.
 
Electives should be capable of being studied independently of the core, allowing them to be studied at different times and with different providers.
 
A generic benchmark for electives will be set, allowing assessment for authorisation. For each elective:  

• Learning outcomes must be clearly defined;
• The outcomes must be informed by current understanding of the law in practice;
• On completion of the elective, the student should be able to identify, research and advise on the key issues and options routinely encountered by trainees working under supervision in the area of practice and identify and address the ethical and client relationship issues that typically arise. 

Electives may be given masters credits, allowing students to credit them towards their masters degrees.
 
The LSRB will set a benchmark of minimum notional learning hours a student would be expected to undertake. However, it will not specify the number of contact hours. Providers will be expected to publish details of both and give details of their expectations with regard to independent or student directed learning.
 
The award at present is a Diploma in Legal Practice. The LSRB is not concerned with the actual qualification, only the outcomes.
 
Exempting Law Degrees and Integrated Programmes will continue to be permitted. There are opportunities for further innovations within the new system, so long as the outcomes and the standards of achievement are focused on. This may give rise to new full-time and part-time courses.

LSRB PRPOSALS vs TSG RECOMMENDATIONS

Common Ground

The TSG are pleased to note that the majority of its recommendations concerning the LPC have been followed.  We are therefore supportive of the proposed reforms and feel that the following aims will be accomplished should they be taken forward:

A common standard of the LPC will be set, which will be supported by authorisation and regulation from the Law Society.  Confidence in the course will not erode due to this failsafe.

Students will have access to objective information about their course choices and choice of course provider.

Assessments will be standardised and assessed externally - providing further confidence in the system and maintaining standards.

Innovation in course structure and delivery method is permitted and encouraged.  Part-time study and further types of Exempting Law Degrees can be created and taught under this system.

The use of the outcomes-based system and the use of "pervasive" skills assessment means that potential solicitors will have a good foundation of legal knowledge, understanding and skills to start their training contracts.

Students would be able to see the knowledge required to start the course, meaning that they could determine whether they were suited to a career in law.

Exemptions mean that those who are have been assessed as capable of meeting certain requirements do not have to pay to re-sit those assessments.

Different electives mean that students can tailor their learning to suit their individual career paths and academic goals.

Differences

The TSG notes that two of its recommendations have not been acted on by the LSRB.

1  COST OF TRAINING

The TSG recommended that the costs of the LPC be controlled.  The TSG feels that course fees for the LPC should be kept to an acceptable level.  At the moment, these top £10,000 across the country.  This only adds to the debt faced by trainee solicitors and law students.  This debt can be crippling in later life.  Although most solicitors can expect to earn upwards of £25,000 on qualification, some do not. 

The LSRB's proposals are silent on the issue of the cost of the LPC course.

It is the TSG's view that the course fees should be reduced, or that the cost of training solicitors should be borne by the profession - specifically, the firms.  We realise that the latter aim is a political one, and will (to a large extent) depend on what other reforms are proposed by the LSRB.

Therefore, the TSG hope that the greater variety and flexibility permitted by course design will have the effect of making the LPC marketplace a more competitive one, with the added benefit of reducing costs that this would bring along with it.

2  EXTERNAL EXAMINATIONS

The TSG recommended that those with practical experience be exempted from elements of the LPC.  This could be achieved by providing an external examination, allowing those working in particular fields to exempt themselves from the relevant elements of the LPC.

The LSRB's proposal states that those who have passed assessments equivalent to LPC assessments may be exempted from those parts of the course.  However, it does not provide for the introduction of external assessments to allow those currently practising (i.e. paralegals and some legal secretaries) to exempt themselves from parts of the course.  It envisages that such examinations will be those which are taken by students as parts of other courses.

The TSG would recommend that the LSRB review this, and introduce external examinations for those with practical experience.

TSG CONSULTATION RESPONSE

You can download a copy of the TSG Response to this consultation by clicking HERE.

NEXT STEPS

The Education and Training sub-committee of the Law Society's Regulation Board (LSRB) in May 2006 agreed a detailed framework for within which providers should in future design LPC courses and within which the LSRB will authorise and monitor them. You can download a paper that outlines the framework: Legal Practice Courses: Framework for authorisation, delivery and assessment .  This new framework will come into force shortly, and will reform the current LPC. 

Stay tuned to the Law Society website for information about what courses will be affected.  The initention is that these courses will begin to come into effect in the 2008/09 academic year.

The Law Society will publish information on their website --> but please contact policy@tsg.org if you have any questions or would like to know how you will be affected.

http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/becomingasolicitor/qualifying/legalpracticecourse.law