SLN survey: Readers narrowly favour university education over in-house legal apprenticeships

Of 616 responses, 51.6 per cent, or 318 readers, voted against the introduction of the new route to qualification as a solicitor.

The remaining 48.4 per cent – 298 respondents – were in favour of apprenticeships.

In a report on legal education this week, Holyrood’s Justice Committee recommended the introduction of apprenticeships, which the Law Society of Scotland is currently working on with Skills Development Scotland.

An experienced practitioner said that the concept is nothing new to this jurisdiction and noted that legal apprenticeships would “produce betters solicitors”.

R.E.M. Davidson told SLN: “The legal profession in Scotland became a graduate profession in my lifetime largely as a result of expansion of legal education by the universities who saw teaching law as a cheap way of increasing student numbers. I make no comment as to whether this is a good thing or bad thing.

“The profession which I joined in the 1960s had many members who had taken apprenticeships and attended classes offered by the universities and others, exams were set by the Law Society.

“One of my fellow apprentices (even graduates were apprentices then) followed this course and became a well-respected member of the profession and many non-graduates were luminaries of the profession, indeed it was common knowledge that one was seriously considered for appointment to a conveyancing chair.”

He added: “A well-structured system of legal apprenticeships will not only open the profession to a wider social range and help to re-root it in the communities it serves but it will also produce betters solicitors, practitioners who have enjoyed a longer period of training in the application a law alongside their training in the law.

“You can make a decent lawyer in a few years but a good solicitor needs experience, judgment and an earned understanding of the community of which he or she forms part of.”