9. Providing legal services: the legal professions

2021 ◽  
pp. 255-290
Author(s):  
Martin Partington

This chapter discusses the role both of those professionally qualified to practise law—solicitors and barristers—and of other groups who provide legal/advice services but who do not have professional legal qualifications. It examines how regulation of legal services providers is changing and the objects of regulations. It notes the development of new forms of legal practice. It also considers how the use of artificial intelligence may change the ways in which legal services are delivered. The chapter reflects on the adjudicators and other dispute resolvers who play a significant role in the working of the legal system, and on the contribution to legal education made by law teachers, in universities and in private colleges, to the formation of the legal profession and to the practice of the law.

Author(s):  
Martin Partington

This chapter discusses the role both of those professionally qualified to practise law—solicitors and barristers—and of other groups who provide legal/advice services but who do not have professional legal qualifications. It examines how regulation of legal services providers is changing. It notes new forms of legal practice. It also considers how use of artificial intelligence may change the ways in which legal services are delivered. It reflects on the adjudicators and other dispute resolvers who play a significant role in the working of the legal system. It reflects on the contribution to legal education made by law teachers, in universities and in private colleges, to the formation of the legal profession and to the practice of the law.


Author(s):  
Martin Partington

This chapter discusses the role both of those professionally qualified to practise law—solicitors and barristers—and of other groups who provide legal/advice services but who do not have professional legal qualifications. It examines how regulation of legal services providers is changing and the objects of regulations. It notes the development of new forms of legal practice. It also considers how the use of artificial intelligence may change the ways in which legal services are delivered. The chapter reflects on the adjudicators and other dispute resolvers who play a significant role in the working of the legal system, and on the contribution to legal education made by law teachers, in universities and in private colleges, to the formation of the legal profession and to the practice of the law.


Author(s):  
Martin Partington

This chapter discusses the role both of those professionally qualified to practise law and of other groups who provide legal services but who are not formally qualified as lawyers. It examines how regulation of legal services providers has changed. It notes new forms of legal practice. It considers the adjudicators and other dispute resolvers who play a significant role in the working of the legal system. It reflects on the contribution made by law teachers, in universities and in private colleges, to the formation of the legal profession and to the practice of the law.


2019 ◽  
pp. 27-45
Author(s):  
Kate Galloway ◽  
Julian Webb ◽  
Francesca Bartlett ◽  
John Flood ◽  
Lisa Webley

This article argues that legal education is currently grappling with three narratives of technology’s role in either augmenting, disrupting or ending the current legal services environment. It identifies each of these narratives within features of curriculum design that respond to legal professional archetypes of how lawyers react to lawtech. In tracing how these influential narratives and associated archetypes feature in the law curriculum, the article maps the evolving intersection of lawtech, the legal profession and legal services delivery in legal education. It concludes by proffering the additional narrative of ‘adaptive professionalism’, which emphasises the complex and contextual nature of the legal profession, and therefore provides a more coherent direction for adaptation of the law curriculum. Through this more nuanced and grounded approach, it is suggested that law schools might equip law graduates to embrace technological developments while holding on to essential notions of ethical conduct, access to justice and the rule of law.


Author(s):  
Steve Wilson ◽  
Helen Rutherford ◽  
Tony Storey ◽  
Natalie Wortley

This chapter considers the respective roles of solicitors and barristers in the English legal system. It outlines the basic business models of legal practice and the constraints on such organisations. It discusses the rules affecting practice as a solicitor or a barrister and discusses the regulatory organisations overseeing solicitors and barristers. The debate as to whether the two main branches of the legal profession should be fused into one is set out. The most recent reforms to legal education are signposted.


2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Helmholz

Most recent historians have expressed a negative opinion of the quality of legal education at the English universities between 1400 and 1650. The academic study of law at Oxford and Cambridge, they have stated, was easy, antiquated and impractical. The curriculum had not changed from the form it assumed in the thirteenth century, and it did little to prepare students for their careers. This article challenges that opinion by examining the inner nature of the ius commune, the law that was applied in the courts of the church, and also by examining some of the works of practice compiled by English civilians during the period. Those works show that the negative opinion rests in part upon a misunderstanding of the nature of legal practice during earlier centuries. In fact, concentration on the texts of the Roman and canon laws, as old-fashioned as it seems to us, was well suited for the tasks advocates and judges would face once they left the academy. It also provided the stimulus needed for advance in the law of the church itself; their legal education made available to potential advocates and judges skills that would permit a sophisticated application of the ius commune, one better suited to their times. The article provides evidence of how this happened.1


2018 ◽  
Vol 169 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-73
Author(s):  
Naomi Sayers

The Law Society of Ontario (formerly, the Law Society of Upper Canada) oversees the legal profession in Ontario, Canada, through The Rules of Professional Conduct (‘Rules’). All future lawyers and paralegals must adhere to the Rules. The Law Society sometimes provides guidance on sample policies informed by the Rules. In this article, the author closely examines the Law Society’s guidance on social media. The author argues that this guidance fails to understand how the Rules regulate experiences out of the legal profession and fails to see the positive possibilities of social media to influence social change, especially in ways that conflict with the colonial legal system. The author concludes that the Law Society must take a positive approach and provide some guidance for the legal profession on their social media use, especially around critiquing the colonial legal system. This positive approach is essential to avoid duplicating the systems and structures that perpetuate disadvantage in marginalized communities.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Jeff Giddings ◽  
Barbara Hook

<p>This paper analyses the challenges faced by clients, students and teachers involved in a clinical program which uses new technology to deliver legal services in remote areas of Southern Queensland, Australia. A range of novel issues were addressed by Griffith University Law School, Learning Network Queensland and Caxton Legal Centre in their partnership development and delivery of this clinical program which involves the use of audio-graphics conferencing to enable students to provide legal advice and assistance to people hundreds of kilometres away. The ‘Advanced Family Law-Clinic’ program commenced in July 1999 with financial support from the Federal Attorney-General’s Department. The paper considers the range of issues which arose in development of the program.</p>


Author(s):  
Raymond Wacks

While orthodox legal theory has purported to be gender-blind, it often neglects or in some instances even ignores the position of women. This silence has been criticized by feminist theorists who have placed discrimination against, and the subordination of, women firmly on the jurisprudential agenda. It is a development that has had an enormous impact on legal education. It extends also to almost every branch of the law and legal system. This chapter examines the key elements of feminist legal theory, including the following: the origins of feminism; and legal feminisms (liberal feminism, radical feminism, postmodern feminism, and difference feminism).


2001 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 420-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Dudley

I am now going to transfer you rapidly from the global information service to a locally targeted and focused legal information service designed to meet the particular needs of a small jurisdiction like Northern Ireland.SLS Legal Publications was established in 1980 as a unique and profoundly innovative experiment in Northern Ireland (N.I.). Its continued existence 20 years later is testament to the fact that it has not only become a success story but is now an integral part of the legal system in Northern Ireland. SLS Legal Publications is a legal publishing and training company based within the Queen's University of Belfast (QUB) and sponsored by the NICS, the Law Society of N.I. and the Bar Council of N.I. QUB's sponsorship takes the form of the provision of accommodation and accounting services. The purpose of SLS is to provide a legal information service in various ways to the Northern Ireland legal profession and the wider community and I will expand on those various ways later in this talk.


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