Legal Profession to Benefit from Unique Partnership

This unique partnership has been made possible by a new Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) initiative, designed to pilot work-based learning as a means of increasing access to the legal profession.

Northumbria has been approved as a pilot institution to offer a distinctive law degree that combines the undergraduate stage of legal education with the Legal Practice Course and the SRA’s Work Based Learning pilot, a new approach to the Training Contract.

Professor Philip Plowden is Dean of Northumbria’s Law School, which is renowned as one of the most innovative providers of legal education in the UK.  He says: “The MLaw (Solicitor) degree is the first law degree of its kind and will see students starting as undergraduates and graduating with the education and training requirements which will make them eligible to join the roll of solicitors.

“The key to Northumbria’s new degree is its award-winning Student Law Office programme, whereby students experience law for real, under the supervision of practising academics, coupled with its close relationship with existing training providers.  Irwin Mitchell law firm is the first approved provider of placements for the new student trainees and this distinctive partnership will benefit our students and the profession as a whole.  We are also working closely with other firms in the North East to provide a range of placement opportunities”.

This holistic approach to legal education is made possible by the SRA’s groundbreaking decision to move towards a results based approach to qualifying as a solicitor.  It potentially opens up new routes into the legal profession and will enable a wider variety of organisations, such as universities, to have a stake in the qualification of future lawyers.  

Clare Gilligan, Head of Education and Training at the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), said: “The new MLaw (Solicitor) degree option is an innovative and interesting variation of the work-based learning pilot.  Over the coming months, we will observe students’ progress with interest and monitor the feedback we receive both from the candidates themselves, the provider and the employer.

“The work-based learning pilot has several strands, all aimed at widening access and ensuring competence and quality in qualifying to become a solicitor.   Once the first stages of the pilot are completed later this year, we will be considering the results of the independent evaluation before consulting the profession on the way forward. I am sure that Northumbria’s new degree course will certainly provide some food for thought.”

The SRA regulates over 100,000 solicitors in England and Wales and this is one of the first tangible outcomes of the organisation’s far reaching review of the framework for qualification as a solicitor.  

Angela Kirtley, Associate Solicitor and Clinical Negligence expert at Irwin Mitchell’s North East office says: “At Irwin Mitchell we are passionate about the law and providing our clients with the very best legal advice and guidance is of paramount importance.  Quality education and training are essential to the future development of the legal profession and we are therefore delighted to be working closely with one of the country’s leading law schools on this exciting initiative.  

“It will mean that, for the first time, students will complete part of their training to be a solicitor while based at university and continue their academic studies whilst on placement.  We believe this holistic approach will prove to be of enormous benefit to the profession in the future.”

The Master of Law (Solicitor) degree is a fully integrated degree that combines the academic, vocational and training stages of qualification as a solicitor.  The full-time five year degree course enables graduates to apply to the SRA for enrolment as a solicitor.  It incorporates:

• A qualifying law degree – needed for future qualification as a solicitor or barrister
• Exemption from the Legal Practice Course
• The final training stage of qualification as a solicitor – Work Based Learning.  Equivalent to the Training Contract, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has approved this stage of the course as part of a wider pilot.

The degree has been developed in consultation with the legal profession and is intended to meet the training needs of future lawyers, as well as the business needs of legal firms across England and Wales.  It is designed to open up access to the legal profession, while preserving the rigour of the training experience.

As this is a pilot, numbers are strictly limited and include only those currently studying on Northumbria’s existing degree course.