A YEAR IN THE LAW 2016-17
Albutt, spoke out to warn that prisons are in “crisis” due to a “toxic mix of pressures”. Albutt’s comments were unprecedented from a prisons civil servant and reflect that prisons are now highly unsafe places for both staff and inmates alike, as overcrowding has increased while the number of prison officers has been slashed as a result of austerity measures. Brexit means… what? The UK legal profession’s continued status as an international hub for commercial law could be called into question when Britain exits the European Union. The government is being constantly lobbied to ensure that the City’s pre-eminence is protected in any Brexit deal but what the outcome of negotiations will be, no one knows. In January the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), the Bar Council and the Law Society published a paper which insisted to MPs that maintaining the profession’s leading status must be a priority. A key fear is that UK lawyers may lose the right to represent clients in EU courts, which currently only permit rights of audience to lawyers of member states. In addition, firms are worried about their rights to establish offices and advise clients based in other EU member states. There are also concerns that judgments handed down by UK courts may no longer be recognised in the European Union after Brexit; this in turn would likely discourage overseas businesses from naming England and Wales as the jurisdiction for commercial contracts, out of fear that these would not be enforceable in EU countries. August brought what many in the legal profession will see as good news, when a government paper revealed
that Theresa May and her negotiators may climb down from their hard line to “take back control of British law”. May insisted that the country would still do just that, but her government’s paper cited a range of possibilities, one of which is that Britain could remain under the direct control of the European Court of Justice for years after Brexit – and still be forced to implement its rulings on issues such as immigration. Revolving door In a sign of the politically fraught times, the legal profession was been headed by four justice secretaries between May 2015 and June 2017. The latest incumbent, David Lidington, took over in June from Liz Truss, for whom 2017 will be a year to forget. Truss was the first woman to hold the role of lord chancellor in British history, so her appointment was a historic milestone for equality. However, her time in charge was notable for a series of blunders and high-profile clashes with the judiciary, as well as the uneasy feeling among senior legal professionals that she had not got to grips with her brief. She infamously failed to defend three judges branded “enemies of the people” by the Daily Mail when the High Court ruled in favour of Parliament on the right to trigger Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (more on which below). Truss’s tenure was also marred by unprecedented criticism from Lord Chief Justice Thomas, who accused her of “misleading” the public over rape cases when she gave inaccurate information about whether victims would be allowed to give evidence via video link in an interview with The Times . Lidington is relatively fresh into the role at time of writing, but
inherits a brief where Brexit, the calls for a rethink on the legal aid crisis and a prison system facing disaster must surely be his priorities in 2018. He will no doubt feature prominently in next year’s update of this article. All change Earlier this year, the SRA confirmed that a new assessment – the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) – will be introduced by 2020. All prospective solicitors will have to pass the SQE in order to qualify. The exam is intended to ensure that all qualified solicitors are of the same high standard, whether they train through the traditional route of completing a university degree followed by postgraduate qualifications, or the relatively new apprenticeship path. The content and structure of the SQE have been made clear (visit LawCareers.Net – LCN – for all the information you need), but uncertainty remains over a host of issues. These include: what the new exam will mean for the Legal Practice Course (LPC), not to mention potential new ‘SQE preparation’ courses that could spring up; the affordability of training as a solicitor for young people; and the quality of solicitors’ training overall. The SQE has received criticism from many quarters, including top City law firms and academics. Some firms are concerned that the overhaul heralded by the SQE could be disruptive to their hiring and training. Firms have also voiced fears that the SQE will not provide the specialist training needed to be an effective City lawyer in comparison to the LPC, where many firms have linked up with law schools to offer their own tailored LPC programmes to prepare future trainees for practice. This in
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