SHAPING THE FUTURE OF LEGAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING...
THE ORIGINAL CONSULTATION IS CLOSED. THIS ORIGINAL WEB PAGE HAS BEEN UPDATED AND NOW OUTLINES ALL OF THE WORK UNDERTAKEN FROM THE INITIAL CONSULTATION TO DATE, BUT YOU SHOULD CLICK HERE TO BE TAKEN TO THE NEXT STAGE OF PROJECT - THE "DISCUSSING THE DETAIL" CONSULTATION. YOU SHOULD ALSO CLICK HERE FOR THE MOST RECENT NEWS.
Welcome to the consultation home page of the largest ever research and evidence gathering exercise undertaken by the Law Society of Scotland. Between November 9th 2006 and February 16th 2007 the Society provided an exciting opportunity for everyone with an interest (from students to partners, clients to legal academics) to have their chance to contribute to and shape the future plans of the Society in relation to how solicitors are trained. This was, and continues to be, an ambitious and complex task, reviewing a range of routes to qualification (from full-time and part-time LLBs to the Society's exams) that can take from five to seven years as well as examining the full practicing life of a solicitor.
A major communications plan supported this project using everything from posters, flyers and letters of invitation through to press, radio and TV coverage. Events were held in internet cafes and on university campuses, we worked with firms and organisations to support them individually in developing their responses, and even our Christmas cards asked people to get involved.
THE MAIN CONSULTATION - RESULTS
Over 3000 people downloaded the four-page summary of the project, and almost 900 individuals went on to complete the main consultation questionnaire. The amount of data collected means it may take several months to analyse in detail.
We wanted to make sure that as soon as the consultation closed people could access at least some of the results, allowing them to find out their colleagues’ views and ensuring that the decision making process is transparent. As more analysis is carried out more formal reports will be placed on this website, however, at the moment you can view the following initial papers:
READ THE FOUR-PAGE SUMMARY of the overall project, so you know what we are trying to achieve
STATISTICS: MAIN QUESTIONNAIRE - providing basic 'percentages' feedback on the main questionaire
FREE-TEXT: MAIN QUESTIONNAIRE - providing a complete listing of all the free-text comments from the main questionnaire
Finally, other sections of this site, again accessible from the menu at the right of your screen, allow you to look at the current training arrangements, the background work behind this project, and the detailed outcomes of other areas of the consultation.
Thank you for supporting this project:
Christine McLintock - Convenor, Education and Training Committee
Liz Campbell - Director - Education and Training
Neil Alan Stevenson - Deputy Director - Education and Training
We can all be contacted via the consultation e-mail address
THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR
We are grateful to T.M.Lewin, the UK’s favourite shirtmaker, for kindly sponsoring part of the consultation project. Renowned as the preferred choice for the complete working wardrobe among professionals T.M.Lewin are continuing to offer a special dsicount rate to Law Society members, just print off the downloadable voucher (please click here), it can be used at their online shop or any T.M.Lewin store (icluding Edinburgh and Glasgow).
