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places to students who have a realistic chance of obtaining pupillage, to reduce the risk and cost for them.”While Wood stresses that admission standards will be high, all background factors will be considered to extend the socioeconomic diversity of candidates.He estimates that the set-up costs will be about £5 million, which will come from the inns — if they support the plans. “We are at the first set of traffic lights; they are red,” he says. If the inns turn them green, the next step will be applying to the BSB to deliver the course, with a view to opening in 2020.Until 1997, the Inns of Court School ofLaw (ICLS) was the monopoly provider of the BPTC (which was known as the Bar Vocational Course). In 2001 ICLS became part of City University, one of the eight institutions offering the course. “We are keen for other providers to survive and thrive,” Wakefield says. “This would introduce another element of choice, adding into the mix a different type of institution, apart from universities and private providers.”Thursday October 19 2017Getting startedthe timesSTUDENT LAW5Raising the Bar while lowering costsThe Inns of Court could soon returnto the heart of legal training with radical plans designed to cut the cost of training and increase the diversity of students going to the Bar. The Inns of Court College of Advocacy (ICCA) — formerly the Advocate’s Gateway, the education department of the Council of theInns of Court (COIC) — has put together a proposal to deliver a two-part Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) that will almost halve the cost.The proposal flows from the decision earlier this year by the Bar’s regulator, the Bar Standards Board (BSB), to approve plans put forward by theBar Council and COIC for an alternative path to qualification. It recommendsthat the BPTC, the compulsory course that future barristers must pass before they can start pupillage, is divided into two parts, with attendance at law school required only for the second. The present course costs up to £20,000.Derek Wood, QC, the chairman of the ICCA, says the training body hired a project manager who helped to put together a feasibility study and detailed proposals that will be presented to the four Inns of Court — Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Lincoln’s Inn and Gray’s Inn — next month. “COIC has developed a course that we think will be more flexible, accessible and less expensive,” he says. If the inns give it the go-ahead, part 1will comprise an online test of the knowledge-based subjects — criminal procedure and sentencing, civil practice and remedies — which students can take from anywhere in the world at a cost of £500-£1,000.Those who pass will be able to apply for part 2, which covers the skills-based subjects, including advocacy, conference skills and drafting. This stage, Wood says, can be taught only face to faceand will be delivered by staff from premises in the inns.Part 2, he says, will last 16 weeks and cost about £10,000. “We reckonwe’d start with a modestnumber and rise to about120 students, runningthe course twicea year,” he says.The council wantsto encourage greateraccess. “The currentBPTC is extremelyexpensive, at£16,000-£20,000 fora 30-week course,”Wood says, noting thehigh failure rate (about 18 per cent) and hugecompetition for pupillage.“The Bar is progressively becoming a profession for the haves — those who can afford the high cost and high risk of failure. The current method of delivering the BPTC excludes those who cannot afford to put so much at risk.”James Wakefield, the COIC director, says “very careful thought” is being given to the admission criteria and whether to have an interview or written and oral tests. “We want to try to offer CATHERINE BAKSI“Gray’s Inn is among the four inns that would once more take on responsibility for teaching in the proposed pathwayIt is increasingly a profession for those who can afford fees and to risk failureALAMYcriminal law and evidence. Part two will focus on practical skills. However, Nollent says, training bodies such as ULaw will no doubtadd their own content to cater for what law firms want from their entrants. “It does allow for quitea lot of innovation.”Some fear that costs may not bemuch less than the GDL/LPC route,and that there may not be the level playing field that is hoped for. Nollent and others point out that if providers create tailored courses leading to the SQE for City law firms, there will still be varying standards of training, as now. Some top universities have already said they will still teach the LPC.There may also be a knock-on effect for law degree courses: some may incorporate training for the SQE, while others may feel liberalised to offer greater variety of content, such as more criminology or legal philosophy. For now, Nollent says: “Students can be sure that they will be guided through the transitional period and should not be deterred from either their academic studies or aspiring to a career in the law.”that date. If the SQE proposals win final approval, anyone who started a qualifying law degree this term will be able to take the traditional LPC and training contract. Anyone who started a non-law degree this term will notbe able to qualify that way, because they would be starting the GDL after September 2020. Professor Andrea Nollent, the chiefexecutive of the University of Law (ULaw), says: “Our concerns are that students are confident, understand what is happening and are not confused. They certainly should not panic.” The objective of the new exam is “commendable”, she says, even if it is still an “open question” whether it will really provide wider access to the profession and cost less. Costs, for example, will be unknown until the end of the secret tender process for appointing the single body that will act as the assessment provider.The core content of part one will be examined chiefly by multiple choice on a wide range of topics, from ethics and professional conduct to wills and probate, taxation, business law, Thousands of students just starting degrees with a legal career in mind may have heard of changes afoot to the way they will qualify as solicitors.The proposed reforms will include the introduction of a centralised super-exam called the solicitors qualifying examination (SQE), instead of the present one-year legal practice course (LPC) and graduate diploma course (GDL) that non-law graduates take first. The reforms, which have been put forward by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), have met widespread criticism over two turbulent years of consultation. However, after undergoing changes, the SQE is due to start in late 2020. This will open up the route to qualification for people who may not even have a degree — a return, in some ways, to the old days, when school-leavers could join a law firm and do “articles”, training on the job. The aim, the SRA says, is to bring consistency to the qualification of being a solicitor now that there are different paths into the profession, from apprenticeships to the traditional degree course with vocational training. “We all need to be able to trust that those who enter the profession are fit to practise,” the SRA says. “The current system does not give us enough assurance that all would-be solicitors have reached the same standard of skills and knowledge at the time of entering the profession.” At present, it adds, performance and pass rates vary across the 100 course providers, from 50 to 100 per cent. Training is also costly, involving at least £15,000 in fees for the LPC upfront, with no guarantee of a training contract — itself, some argue, a barrier to greater diversity in the profession. Candidates will need to pass two parts of the SQE, complete a two-year period of qualifying work experience, have a degree or its equivalent and meet requirements as to character and suitability.What does it mean for present students? Anyone who has embarked on the present route will have until 2031 to finish under transitional arrangements that will keep both systems running until FRANCES GIBBRadical plans open new pathways to being a solicitor The solicitors qualifying examination, or SQE, is intended to open up access to the profession