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06 January 2011 / Dr Jon Robins
Issue: 7447 / Categories: Opinion , Profession
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An unfair divide?

As students take to the streets to protest rising levels of debt, law schools stand accused of treating their students as a revenue stream churning out young lawyers for jobs that don’t exist...

Part 2: Jon Robins calls for a dose of reality in the legal education system 

As students take to the streets to protest rising levels of debt, law schools stand accused of treating their students as a revenue stream churning out young lawyers for jobs that don’t exist. So the new review of legal education announced last month—and welcomed by the chair of the Legal Services Board, David Edmonds as “the most penetrating enquiry” into the training needs of lawyers since the 1971 Ormrod Review—is well-timed and long overdue.

A system of legal education that seeks to equip a solicitor at the point of admission to be equally competent as a corporate lawyer in a magic circle firm or as a general practitioner in a small high street firm is “in danger of producing a lawyer whose skills

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Gateley Legal—Caroline Pope & Bob Maynard

Gateley Legal—Caroline Pope & Bob Maynard

Construction team bolstered by hire of senior consultant duo

Switalskis—four appointments

Switalskis—four appointments

Firm expands residential conveyancing team with quadruple appointment

mfg Solicitors—Claire Pope

mfg Solicitors—Claire Pope

Private client team welcomes senior associatein Worcester

NEWS
What safeguards apply when trust corporations are appointed as deputy by the Court of Protection? 
Disputing parties are expected to take part in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), where this is suitable for their case. At what point, however, does refusing to participate cross the threshold of ‘unreasonable’ and attract adverse costs consequences?
When it comes to free legal advice, demand massively outweighs supply. 'Millions of people are excluded from access to justice as they don’t have anywhere to turn for free advice—or don’t know that they can ask for help,' Bhavini Bhatt, development director at the Access to Justice Foundation, writes in this week's NLJ
When an ex-couple is deciding who gets what in the divorce or civil partnership dissolution, when is it appropriate for a third party to intervene? David Burrows, NLJ columnist and solicitor advocate, considers this thorny issue in this week’s NLJ
NLJ's latest Charities Appeals Supplement has been published in this week’s issue
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