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A paradigm shift

25 July 2014 / Jane Ching
Issue: 7616 / Categories: Features , Training & education , Profession
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Jane Ching reflects on two decades in legal education & looks to the future

Social media is full of surprises, not least the one presented by LinkedIn which prompted a colleague to congratulate me on my 21st anniversary with Nottingham Law School—really a rather terrifying anniversary. I know I had registered my six-year anniversary, on the entirely self-serving basis that that meant the limitation period had expired on any messes I had managed to leave behind in practice. A group of us, all recruited for the first year of the LPC in 1993, had also had a survivors’ lunch once we hit our 20th anniversary. But 21 is a rather different kind of watershed, marking, as it does, the coming of age of a particular form of vocational legal education for solicitors in England and Wales: what I will call the shift from the “knowledge era” to the “skills era”.

Days of yore

In June 1993, we still didn’t have a building to put our new LPC in. Even when we did, it

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Writing in NLJ this week, Thomas Rothwell and Kavish Shah of Falcon Chambers unpack the surprise inclusion of a ban on upwards-only rent reviews in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
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