Last week The Lawyer picked up on an interesting disagreement about legal training requirements that is playing out as we type. On the one hand the College of Law has announced there will be a shortage of LPC graduates next year, resulting in more than 500 unfilled trainee positions, while on the other hand the Law Society has continued to warn of an oversupply of students (see this article from the Law Society Gazette).
So who to believe? Although we have seen the number of trainee vacancies pick up since the darkest days of the recession, a surplus of 500 training contracts does seem more like wishful thinking than reality. The Legal Services Board (LSB) is poised to investigate further and has said that a study into training within the legal profession will address any discrepancy between the number of Legal Practice Course graduates and the number of training contracts. The LSB is planning to work with the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board to assess supply and demand in the market.
Whatever the results of the study, matching the number of places on LPC courses more closely to the demand for trainees can only be a good thing