Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Solicitors and Barristers: AS Law
- Solicitors
- 120,000 practising in
England and Wales
- 87,000
in
private
practice
- Rest in: employed
work, industry, local
government or
Crown Prosecution
Service
- Represented by
the Law Socitey
- The Law Society
- Used to regulate
profession but
fuction is now given
to the independent
Solicitors' Regulation
Authority
- Used to deal with complaints but = conflict of interest,
could not be impartial in investigation, function now
overseen by Office for Legal Complaints
- SRA now in charge of regulating profession:
setting down education, training ,
qualifacation requirements and rules
practised by
- Training
- Degree in another subject = Common
Professional Examination (CPE) or Graduate
Diploma in Law (GDL)
- One-year Legal Practice Course
- Can be taken
as one-year
full-time or
two-year
part-time
course
- Practically based as it
includes:
Client-interviewing,
negotiation, advocacy,
drafting documents and
legal research
- Training Contract
- Work in a
solicitors firm
2 years
- Can be undertaken in legal
organisations e.g. Crown
Prosecution Service or legal
department of a local authority
- During 2 year training contract,
trainee is paid, do own work
supervised by a solicitor
- Complete a 20-day
Professional Skills
Course builds skills
learned on LPC
- At the end Trainee will be admitted as a
solicitor by the Law Society, name
added to list, keep attending education
courses to keep up knowledge
- Non-Grad Route
- 1st become legal executives
- Only open to mature candidates
- Takes longer than normal route
- Criticsms
- Financial Problems
- Pay fees of LPC (£12,000)
- Degree in another subject
(CPE/GDL) have to pay
£10,000
- Poorer families not
able to afford =
prevented from
becoming solicitors
- Bank
loans =
large debt
- Lack of Legal Knowledge
- Non-law Grads only do one
year of law (CPE/GDL)
- 25% have not taken a law degree
- Over-Supply
- Students who have passed LPC
unable to get training contract
- Solicitors Work
- Some become legal advisers in
commercial or industrial business, 30,000 employed
- In private practice, may work as sole
practitioner or in a partnership
- 10,000 firms, small high-street
pratcice to big city firms
- No. of partners not limited, some big
firms have 100+ partners and employed
assistant solicitors
- Type of Work
- Small high-street firm = a general practice,
advising clients (consumer problems,
housing, business matter and family
problems)
- Normally dealing with paperwork: writing letters on behalf of clients, drafting contracts, leases
- Barristers