Solicitors and Barristers

There exist today, three main routes to becoming qualified as a solicitor. The most traditional being, A-levels or equivalent qualification and then on to a law degree, potential students would do well to seek work experience in their desired field of law as competition in the job market is high and some students who despite the four years of training at a cost of around £30,000 (Op Cit: Londonmet.ac.uk) to pass their law degree and Legal Practice Course minus living costs, may not be able to secure a training contract, which is essential in the qualification process. It might be difficult for many to comprehend getting into that much debt with no guaranteed job at the end or training contract, which could deter many potentially good lawyers from tuning to the legal professions (Slapper and Kelly: 2007) (Martin: 2010).

The Legal Practice Course is a one year full time, or two years part-time course taken at a university which involves building on the students’ knowledge of law, emulating the work carried out by solicitors as well as practice interviewing and advocacy skills in order to prepare post graduates for their training contract. The legal practice course has come under some recent scrutiny from the Solicitors Regulation Authority chairman Charles Plant for offering only a narrow scope of education tailored for big law firms and how some solicitors get ‘pigeonholed’ into specialist areas they may not wish to practice (Op Cit: legalfutures.co.uk) (Ibid).

The training contract, which is very similar to the barristers’ pupillage is in essence an apprenticeship that enables the student to work at their chosen solicitors firm, and takes two years to qualify. This training period can be also undertaken in the legal department at of a local authority or within the Crown Prosecution Service, depending on the students’ choice of career path (Ibid).

Other routes involve either a degree in another subject, followed by the Common Professional Examination or Postgraduate Diploma in Law which is a one year training course that covers modules in contract law, crime, equity and trusts, European law, land law, public law and tort law as well as an introduction to English law and legal ethics, or there is the non academic route which is only available to mature students. These entrants must have worked within a solicitors’ office for a minimum of two years before taking a Professional Diploma with the Institute of Legal Executives. After working for a solicitors office for five years, provided they have completed the required training and are aged 25 or over, they would be admitted as a Fellow of The Institute of Legal Executives, at this point both of the non traditional routes would be required to take the Legal Practice Course and then complete a two year training period before becoming qualified as a solicitor. These non traditional candidates account for about 25% of all practicing solicitors. Arguably someone with only one year’s education of the legal system and English law could possibly lead to a less competent solicitor, on the other hand someone who learns the profession vocationally over a period of seven years rather than academically via the Legal Executive route, could have an advantage working within the profession and possibly lead to becoming a better solicitor within their specialised areas (Ibid).

The trainee will carry out the normal day-to-day activities of a solicitor, under the supervision of an adequately qualified solicitor and will be paid a wage, but not that of a fully qualified one. Solicitors’ mostly work within private practices or as part of multi disciplinary firms and depending on their chosen specialised area be it civil or criminal law, prosecution or defence will deal with clients face-to-face, have automatic rights of advocacy in the Magistrates and County Courts, write letters on behalf of clients, draft documents such as wills; deal with conveyance and the legal side property management or development, buying and selling houses, flats, offices and land. Up until The Administration of Justice Act 1985, solicitors had enjoyed a monopoly on all conveyances and as a result, this opened up competition from barristers who could charge less due to cheaper overhead costs which are approximately half of a solicitors (Op Cit: sixthformlaw.info), meaning solicitors had to reduce fees and lost a lot of work. This in turn led to demands for wider rights of advocacy in the higher courts as this was exclusively reserved for barristers (Ibid).

Rights of advocacy were only granted in the lower courts to solicitors up until the Courts and Legal services Act 1990, which made it possible for them to apply for a certificate of advocacy in the higher courts after completing compulsory training and an examination. Solicitors could now take a case from start to finish, with more work now available to them and offer a cheaper cost to the service user. Previously Lord Chancellor Mackay had argued that these monopolies were not in the best interests of the users of legal services resulting in limited choice and artificially high prices. The Act also made it possible for private non-legal firms such as corporations, banks and building societies to engage in conveyance as well as any other interested parties provided that they where a member of the Conveyancing Ombudsman Scheme also established under the Act. It also allowed for solicitors and barristers to be part of multi-disciplinary partnerships and gave ‘direct access’ rights to certain professionals for barristers without the need for a solicitor, previously anyone wishing to speak with a barrister had to go through a solicitor resulting in increasing legal fees (Ibid).

The Access to Justice Act 1999 extended the rights of advocacy in higher courts to all newly qualifying solicitors provided they complete the training and examination, and also had a provision that could eventually allow solicitors automatic rights of audience across the spectrum however, this has not been brought into affect yet. These acts were aimed at eroding some of the monopolies solicitors and barristers had in the courts and were influenced by the Marre Committee report in 1988, which was set up by the Law Society and the Bar Council, the governing bodies who at the time were accountable to no one and elected by barristers and solicitors in 1986, and also as a compromise to the fusion debate, discredited by the Benson Commission report in 1979 which had also ruled out partnerships between barristers and solicitors (sixthformlaw.info) (Ibid).

Upon completion of the training contract the trainee is admitted as a solicitor by the Law Society and must undergo continuous education and training to keep them up to date on legislative changes and practices within the profession. The Master of Rolls adds their name to the roll of officers of the Supreme Court and they are then required to pay for a practicing certificate which costs around £1000 (Op Cit: sra.org.uk). They must then contribute to the compensation fund run by The Law Society which pays out to clients who have suffered loss through the negligence of a solicitor; they also have to pay an annual premium for indemnity insurance. It could be that the sheer expense of the profession only attracts those wealthy enough to commit to such an investment; despite the latest economic downturn, according to figures from the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the profession continues to grow. 7% in 2010, 2% in 2009 and 2008, and 3% in 2007 (Op Cit: legalweek.com) and since 1980 the number of practicing solicitors has more than tripled, up from 38000 to 118000, 20245 of which work within financial firms in London (Op Cit: Guardian.co.uk) (Ibid).

Barristers traditionally qualify in much the same way as solicitors however; the Bar Professional Training Course is required instead of the Legal Practice Course. As with solicitors, the one year full time law course and Common Professional Examination grants students with a none law degree eligibility to the Bar Professional Training Course, as well as a none academic route available to non-graduate mature students. Non-graduate students must complete a two year law course and the Common Professional Examination (Op Cit: sixthformlaw.info) before being eligible for the Bar Professional Training Course. As with the training routes to becoming a solicitor, arguably each route could produce a different calibre of barrister, particularly the non-graduate route which requires no previous legal experience and only two years of basic law teaching followed by the Common Professional Examination (Ibid).

Before taking the Bar Professional Training Course, students must secure membership at one of the four Inns. Membership to a particular Inn does not restrict the area of law the student wishes to practice, their choice of pupilage or tenancy (Op Cit: barstandardsboard.org). Students must complete 12 ‘dining’ sessions to familiarise themselves with the customs of the Bar and include dining with senior members of the Inn, dining with groups of other students, weekend training sessions, parties and lectures supposedly allowing for networking and possible career opportunities, however in practice students usually only meet other students (Ibid).

The Bar Professional Training Course is taken at a University and can be taken either full time in one year or part time in two, this entails building on the students’ knowledge of law as in the Legal Practice Course; however the main focus of barristers training and workload is advocacy within the Crown Court for indictable offences. Students will receive one-to-one tuition from experienced professionals and practice advocacy in a court setting, but at a cost of £16500 (Op Cit: city.ac.uk), again it is an expensive career choice possibly deterring many lower class people from the professions. Upon completion of the Bar Professional Training Course, students are then ‘called to the Bar’ by their chosen Inn, which means they are now officially qualified as a barrister, however with only 500 pupillages available per year, on average around 20% of trainee barristers called to the Bar actually secure a pupilage with a majority of chambers tenant lists showing a clear bias towards traditional universities such as Oxbridge (Op Cit: learnmore.lawbore.net), which the Bar Council are trying to address. In 2011, the Kaplan Law School Bar Professional Training Course had a 40% rate of graduates securing pupilage (Op Cit: law-school.kaplan.co.uk). As competition is so tough for would be barristers, at this point some may choose to take none advocate career roles, join a multidisciplinary law firm or retrain as a solicitor as competition for pupillage is so high (Ibid).

If a barrister wishes to practice they must secure a pupillage shadowing a junior barrister for a period of twelve months in total, this can be undertaken in two six month periods with two different pupil masters. Some barristers may also ‘squat’ for another six months as an unofficial tenant of a chamber, due to the lack of placements available whilst seeking full time entry to a chamber. However, after six months they are eligible to take on their own cases and appear in court and assume automatic rights of advocacy in all of the Courts. Much like solicitors, barristers must complete continuous education programs organised by the Bar Council. Trainees are paid a minimum of £10000 per annum (Op Cit: sixthformlaw.info) which is around half of a trainee solicitors wage (Op Cit: Martin p139), and have been known to be paid up to £40000 for the best candidates. Barristers are self employed and usually work from a set of chambers. It is possible to work from home, however working as part of a chamber of about 15 to 20 barristers is more economically viable as administrative fees can be split and as part of a chamber, they would also have access to support staff as well as the services of a clerk for booking cases, negotiating fees as well as finding new work, this is traditionally viewed as the way to build a successful practice (Ibid).

The career opportunities arising for a practicing solicitor seem a little more meritocratic than the barrister pupillage and chamber tenancies, and while traditionally an individual solicitor alone does less advocacy work than a barrister, as a whole solicitors do far much more as 98% of criminal cases are dealt with within the Magistrates Court. It would be wrong to think of solicitors and barristers as being the same, although the training is very similar academically, vocationally the solicitors training contract allows them to develop their specialist skills within their field of the profession, as does the barristers’ pupillage. Solicitors conduct litigation with clients face-to-face and then pass on the cases to barristers allowing for objectivity when assessing evidence and cases, some solicitors who have transferred to the Bar have reported that they formed a partisan view of clients’ cases which resulted in a bias opinion in some cases (Op Cit: sixthformlaw.info), one advantage of keeping the professions separate, however there is no definition between the two professions in American law. The monopolies once owned by the professions have been dissolved, opening up competition across the board and lowering legal fees for clients however, questions are being asked about the competence of lawyers training by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (Op Cit: legalfutures.co.uk) and  how some solicitors firms have a total disregard for obligatory rules, regulations and methods of practice.