header-logo header-logo

Change to barrister training is ‘wrong approach’

10 April 2024
Issue: 8066 / Categories: Legal News , Training & education , Education
printer mail-detail
The Bar Council has opposed its regulator’s proposals to reduce the academic standards required for the Bar

In January, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) launched its ‘Consultation on proposed amendments to the definition of academic legal training and related exemptions’, suggesting four potential reforms by September 2025.

In a stiff rebuke this week, however, the Bar Council opposed three of these reforms: removing the requirement for a minimum 2:2 degree, giving authorised education and training organisations the power to decide whether applicants are academically competent, and removing the requirement for certain applicants to obtain a Certificate of Academic Standing.

Sam Townend KC, Chair of the Bar Council, said the majority of the BSB’s proposed reforms ‘would lower standards, make the assessment of academic standards equivalent to degrees more difficult, and transfer decisions away from the BSB (the regulator formally tasked with the job) to the training providers, who are not accountable and who have a clear financial interest in maximising the number of students taking up Bar training.

‘There are already thousands taking the roughly 20 Bar training courses, but only a little over 600 pupillage places. The clear intent of the regulator’s intended reform is to increase yet further the numbers taking Bar training courses, inevitably ramping up further the numbers of students who will have paid the high level of fees but be disappointed in not obtaining a pupillage. We think this is the wrong approach.’

The Bar Council said it was neutral about the fourth proposal, amending the definition of academic legal training so as to remove prescriptive detail.

According to the BSB, there were 2,360 enrolments on the 2023 Bar training course. Only 638 pupillages were advertised through the Pupillage Gateway.

Issue: 8066 / Categories: Legal News , Training & education , Education
printer mail-details

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Gilson Gray—Linda Pope

Gilson Gray—Linda Pope

Partner joins family law team inLondon

Jackson Lees Group—five promotions

Jackson Lees Group—five promotions

Private client division announces five new partners

Taylor Wessing—Max Millington

Taylor Wessing—Max Millington

Banking and finance team welcomes partner in London

NEWS
The landmark Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson v FirstRand Bank Ltd—along with Rukhadze v Recovery Partners—redefine fiduciary duties in commercial fraud. Writing in NLJ this week, Mary Young of Kingsley Napley analyses the implications of the rulings
Barristers Ben Keith of 5 St Andrew’s Hill and Rhys Davies of Temple Garden Chambers use the arrest of Simon Leviev—the so-called Tinder Swindler—to explore the realities of Interpol red notices, in this week's NLJ
Mazur v Charles Russell Speechlys [2025] has upended assumptions about who may conduct litigation, warn Kevin Latham and Fraser Barnstaple of Kings Chambers in this week's NLJ. But is it as catastrophic as first feared?
Lord Sales has been appointed to become the Deputy President of the Supreme Court after Lord Hodge retires at the end of the year
Limited liability partnerships (LLPs) are reportedly in the firing line in Chancellor Rachel Reeves upcoming Autumn budget
back-to-top-scroll