Barristor and Solicitor

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Describe the ways in which solicitors and barrister are trained (18 marks)

In England, since the 15th century lawyers have been split up into two professions, barristers & solicitors. Solicitors have traditionally been the people who research cases and barristers have traditionally had rights of audiences in court. There are 60,000 solicitors in the U.K. and 6,000 barristers of which 4,000 are currently working in London.

There are two ways to become a barrister. One would be taking a law degree and the other would be a non-law degree. If you want to become a barrister it is best to think about it from an earlier stage, especially if that person wants to qualify by doing a law degree. When taking law degrees most law courses last 3 years at university and it is important to ensure that a student is studying for an LL.B. course as for the others, such as BA courses, may not have all the key subjects in the course. Before taking the next stage of training, students must demonstrate that they have covered the same key subjects at University as solicitors. To become a barrister you need a good class degree, as competition is high; at least 2II is required. The law students need to decide whether they want to be barristers while at university, as all applications go to the Bar Vocational Course, this must be made in the first term of the last year at university. However, with student with non-law degrees can also become barristers but the process takes a year longer to complete. The individual must take the Common Professional Examination before applying to go on to the bar vocational course. They need to apply for this in the first term of the CPE course (which consists of 7 core subjects).

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In the Bar Vocational Course, the full time course takes a year and the part time course takes 2 years. However, there are only 1500 places from 2500 applicants. Students cannot be accepted onto the Bar Vocational Course unless they have joined an Inn. There are four Inn’s they can join Gray’s Inn, Inner Temple, Lincoln’s Inn and Middle Temple. The overall running of the Inns is carried out by Masters of the Bench, who are senior barristers or judges. Only Benchers have the power to call someone to the Bar i.e. pronounces that the person is qualified. Scholarships ...

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An accurate outline of the qualifying routes for solicitors and barristers with some accurate detail included. Rating ****

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Quality of Writing: The writer shows no problems in grammar or punctuation. However there is the odd mistake in spelling, for example they write ‘pupilage’ rather than ‘pupillage’. This may seem picky, but it is important to show that you know the key terms inside-out. Nevertheless, they use many key terms and use the correct names for the necessary courses, (such as ‘Legal Practice Course’ and ‘Bar Vocational Course’) rather than simply describing them. This shows thorough knowledge.

Level of Analysis: This being a ‘describe’ command essay question, there is not a huge amount of analysis necessary. However the student does manage to break what may seem like a rather daunting and confusing path of qualifications into simple and coherent stages.

Response to Question : The student has answered the question coherently and completely by giving a short introductory paragraph and then proceeding to explain how one would train to become a barrister or solicitor in chronological order. The introduction is good as it gives very specific background information that is not always remembered by the average A Level student (e.g ‘There are 60,000 solicitors in the U.K. and 6,000 barristers of which 4,000 are currently working in London.’) This is good as it shows they have prepared thoroughly for the exam. The response then sets out how to train as a barrister and then as a solicitor; this is written in chronological order which makes it easy to follow and understand. To add, rather than simply stating the name of the course one needs to take, the writer explains what the course involves and gives examples (e.g. ‘need to go to Law College and do the course ‘The Legal Practice Course’. In this some of the compulsory subjects would include litigation, property etc… Students can also take 3 optional subjects which will be on the private client field or in corporate work.’). This is good as it shows they have no simply rote-learnt some key terms but have also studied the details of the courses.