The Gazette 1981

JUNE 1981

GAZETTE

The Law School: The End of the Beginning

and professional conduct were covered and — after days of moot courts, with advocacy and evidence much to the fore — the course ended with the apprentices giving their views of the course and of the other elements of the sand- wich. The students have now to await the results of the assessments made of their performance and attendance during the course and, subject to a satisfactory outcome in that area, to wait for the rest of their three year minimum apprenticeship to run out. In view of the fact that these apprentices have completed their course and are waiting only for time to elapse in order to obtain their parchments, the Education Advisory Committee have expressed the view that they differ from qualified solicitors only in being unable to plead in court and that their salary scales should be reviewed to recognise this reality. The Society is proud of its culinary effort! The comple- tion of its first sandwich course is a notable "first" in the field of practical training courses. The Law School administration — which records its thanks to the planning committees and the consultants and tutors who took time from their practices and work to make it all possible— will share the experience of the Advanced Course with colleagues from New South Wales and other jurisdictions who are on the same road.

On 20 February, 1979 the Law School in the Blackhall Place headquarters of the Society opened its doors to the first group of seventy-three students under the new educa- tion and training scheme for solicitors' apprentices. On 17 February, 1981 those seventy-three apprentices (less one of their number who was ill) returned to commence their Advanced Course. This was the top layer of their sandwich course. Having completed (or is it having munched through?) the bottom layer in the five- and-a-half month Professional Course — the apprentices spent eighteen months in the offices of their masters, weld- ing together the knowledge of substantive law which they learned in the university law faculties and the lawyering skills which they acquired in the Society's Law School. In an office where the apprentice is given meaningful work, carried out under the interested and concerned eye of the master, or master manque, their unbroken eighteen month in-office training is the meat in the sandwich. Apprentices really want to work and, in most cases, their zest for work was rewarded by plenty to do. In some few cases, the apprentice was given insufficient work or work of lesser quality than his capabilities justified: this was dis- piriting to the apprentice and bad value to the master, who was paying the apprentice £40 a week as well as providing office space, equipment and some secretarial services. And so the apprentices arrived at the first Advanced Course. The very title is slightly misleading in that to some extent it was a refresher and up-dating exercise as much as a breaking-of-new-ground course. The course maintained the twin characteristics of the Professional Course — objectives identified in beha- vioural terms (what will the apprentice be able to do in the office or in court or in another legal situation that he was unable to do at the start) and "learning-by-doing" — but the maturity and experience of the apprentices allowed somewhat "thinner" teaching teams to cover practical subjects more widely and with more speed. It was found right to set the tone and pace by jumping off with four days on the administration of estates; after some initial breath-catching the apprentices took to the taxation aspects of administration of estates and the framing of wills and settlements to minimise capital tax; they under- stood too the need for systematising and speeding up the administration and windling-up of estates. Conveyancing followed — with refreshers in mortgages and searches and in investigation of title, and covering sale of flats, commercial leases, acting for a builder, Land Registry and Land Commission practice, stamp duty and CGT. A whole week was devoted to office administration and financial control, because solicitors must run an efficient business in order to give an effective professional service. Licensing and negotiation of settlements in civil litiga- tion were both popular days, while the two optional subjects — Family Law and Business Law — were both well supported. Landlord and Tenant Law was up-dated with an exposition of the 1980 Act. Cost drawing, ethics

Education Timetable 1981

July 7: First Irish Examination. July 8: Second Irish Examination. July 14: Presentation of Parchments. July 14-15: Preliminary Examination. August

12-24: First, Second and Third Law Examinations (this is the last time the First Law Examination will be offered). October 1: Book-keeping Examination. Oct. 12-Nov. 20, Nov. 25-Dec. 23: Sixth Professional Course. Oct. 13-Nov. 27: Second Advanced Course (dates to be finalised)

October 28: Presentation of Parchments. December 2: First Irish Examination. December 3: Second Irish Examination. Dec. 4-16: Final Examination — First Part.

! II