Bar Chairman Calls for Cap on Training Numbers

Jan 23, 2014

Written By Jos Weale, Managing Editor, AllAboutLaw.co.uk

The head of the Bar, Chairman Nicholas Lavender QC, has expressed concerns for the amount of legal professional courses students in comparison to the number of legal jobs available to them upon graduation. He believes a cap on training numbers could help to combat this issue.

Aspiring solicitors and barristers will be all too aware of the competition that they face for a limited amount of training contracts and pupillages. The number of students who take on the LPC (the mandatory vocational course for wannabe solicitors) and the BPTC (the equivalent for those who wish to be barristers) each year far exceeds the number of positions available upon graduation with law firms and chambers.

Only those who have been lucky enough to secure a training contract with a law firm on the solicitor path are guaranteed a job in the legal profession when they finish their studies.

The chairman of the Bar, Nicholas Lavender QC, has stated that there should be a cap on the number of places available each year for legal professional training courses. In an interview with the Law Society Gazette, he said: “I have no doubt the Bar, and I suspect solicitors, would like to be able to limit the number of students taking the professional training courses. We are all very concerned that so many take the courses but are unable to find work in the profession.”

He added: “Law schools have a responsibility to their potential students to make sure they know what their prospects are when they commit to the courses.”

Mr Lavender also suggested that the introduction of a system which would require students to secure pupillage in their second or final year of university before commencing the BPTC would be beneficial.

He stated: “Solicitors recruit law students at the end of their second year at university. Similarly pupillages should be awarded in the last academic year, before students commit to the expensive BPTC.”

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