Next Gen News

With British legal priority in danger, the value of our system of legal education begins at age 18 is interrogated

Is it legal training in the UK last victim of the economic crisis? The recession has not been kind to Britain. But surprisingly, in the rubble of our bankers, journalists and political reputation of destruction, until the law of the United Kingdom remains head high. Not only is London the world's best destinations for international companies to resolve conflicts, but English law is the legal system of choice for the drafting of international contracts. And despite the relatively small size of the British legal market, our "magic circle" law firms come to dominate the world, law firms level of trade.

But the problems ahead. With the British legal profession staking much of its future growth in the expansion of emerging economies, serious concerns were expressed about the preference of a growing number of dual-qualified lawyers from Asia to U.S. place in the United Kingdom, a law degree.

In a discussion of legal education held Tuesday at University College London (UCL), the threat posed by U.S. law (the law of New York in particular) to position of the United Kingdom as "the lawyer of the world" was the dominant theme among the big shots of the assembled panels legal. David Bickerton, managing partner of Clifford Chance, the fifth largest law firm in the world, articulated sense of anxiety. "We are in mortal combat with the legal system of New York," he said.

The problem the UK faces is that our legal education system is confusing and apparently less prestigious than the American version. Here, prospective lawyers should do his law degree at age 18 - which is regarded internationally as a strange time, young people to engage in a professional vocation - or to the law and graduates through high school above 10 months (GDL), a course of engagement by the private law schools, and the former polytechnics. The time at which the paths converge, students must complete an additional year of professional skills, before a contract for the formation of two years with a law firm. Only then will what is actually legal.

In contrast, the United States, the law is only taught as an all-in-one, three years of postgraduate Juris Doctor (JD). At the end of the course, which is given for a number of universities in the Ivy League elite, graduates receive a law degree and are licensed to practice immediately.