The Gazette 1981

GAZETTE

MARCH 1981

Education — A Student's View

John Fahy

Students' Representative on the Fourth Professional Course

(Written in conjunction with a representative cross-section of Students)

On Tuesday, 14 October 1980, ninety-six apprentices

entered upon the Law Society's Fourth Professional

Course in Blackhall Place. For each of them this marked

a new departure in their careers. The academic side of

their training over, they were now to be introduced to the

law in practice. However, it was to prove an introduction

at a price, the approximate cost of the course being

£1,000. For most of the apprentices this involved obtain-

ing a bank loan, which they will have to repay with

interest over the next few years.

In April 1981 the apprentices having completed the

course will enter their respective master's offices. This is

possibly where the most crucial part of their training will

begin, for it is here that they should become acquainted

with the day to day work of a solicitor. While, for most

apprentices this period proves most beneficial, both from

their own and their master's point of view, unfortunately

this may not be true of all apprenticeships. For some, this

period consists of a long series of frustrations, in which

the apprentice is continually relegated to the most menial

and least educational work in the office. Perhaps if more

masters understood the training which apprentices receive

prior to entering their offices, such frustration for the

apprentice could be avoided.

. It is the purpose of this article, therefore, to outline the

new training scheme, with particular emphasis on the

initial six month course.

The Development of the New Training Scheme

In 1971 the training of lawyers in England was investi-

gated by the Ormrod Committee and suggestions

designed to improve training were put forward. The

Committee recommended that legal education for the

profession be divided into two parts; the academic and the

vocational. The former it was recognised could best be

provided in the university law schools, the latter in voca-

tional law schools.

In 1974 the Incorporated Law Society announced its

decision to revise the system of legal education by which

solicitors were trained. To this end, they accepted sub-

stantially the recommendations of the Ormrod Report.

After consultations with many practitioners, a new

system, to accommodate the vocational side of the

apprentice's training was designed.

This new system envisaged the apprentice spending an

introductory period in the master's office, followed by a

six month course in the Law School at Blackhall Place.

The objective of this course was stated to be the learning

by the apprentice of "the skills needed and procedures

followed by solicitors in the initial years of their profes-

sional lives". The next stage involved the apprentice

returning to his/her master's office for a period of eighteen

months, during which period it would be the master's

duty to give the apprentice as much experience as possible

of the broad spectrum of the solicitor's work. Finally, the

apprentice would complete his training by a final course,

dealing with more advanced topics than the previous one.

A Practice-Orientated Course

The initial six-month course is a "practice-orientated"

one and a list of the subjects covered can be found in the

Appendix to this article. Extensive reliance is placed on

Professor Gullickson's belief that "skills can only be

acquired through performance", and the course is

fashioned around this belief. To this end, a learning-by-

doing approach is adopted, which puts the emphasis on

"doing by the students, with a subsequent appraisal and

correction by the course consultants and tutors".

Aspects of legal procedure are demonstrated by the

consultants through use of hand-outs, audio-visual aids

and practical exercises in which all the students parti-

cipate. Each student's progress is monitored continually

and failure to achieve the required standard in assess-

ments may result in the student having to repeat that

particular part of the course. Punctuality and attendance

are also taken into account in assessments.

Appraisal

While the theory behind the course appears basically

sound, this is not to say that in practice the course works

ideally.

For a start, while the students benefit greatly from the

experience of the one hundred and fifty practitioners

acting as consultants and tutors, it is a fact of life that not

all good practitioners possess the ability to communicate

their particular subjcct. Indeed it must be said that, in a

small number of cases, students detected a distinct lack of

preparation on the part of certain tutors.