the barrister
17
Entry to the Bar: Lord Neuberger’s Interim Report, April 2007 The Interim Report suggests the possibility of chambers selecting their pupils before students start the BVC. If this is done under the OLPAS system, it will mean that (except for CPE/GDL students) pupillage selection will happen before graduation, so decisions will have to be made without the benefit of knowing degree results By Stuart Sime, BVC Course Director,The City Law School
L
ord Neuberger of Abbotsbury’s Working Party produced its Interim Report on Entry to the Bar in April 2007, the consultation date for which was 31 May 2007. The Interim report is the first phase in the Bar’s response to the Government’s Report on “Increasing Diversity in the Legal Profession” (November 2005). In the foreword to the Government’s Report the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Constitutional Affairs said: “In order to create a more diverse legal profession, talent must be drawn from all quarters of our society. I strongly support a profession that is open to the most talented people in our society, regardless of social or educational background.” Lord Neuberger’s Working Party is looking at two things: (a) improving funding for new entrants to the Bar; and (b) identifying and removing barriers to entry for minority and socially and economically disadvantaged students. Before going any further I had better make a declaration of interest. My father was a shipwright, and although I passed the 11 plus I went to a state school which was converted into a comprehensive when I was 14. I was awarded a LL.B. by the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, did my pupillage at 11 Stone Buildings and 169 Temple Chambers, and after 13 years as a tenant am now the Course Director of the BVC at The City Law School.
Pupillage and tenancy numbers Back in the 1980s and 1990s, when I was seeking to enter the profession, students saw pupillage as a minor hurdle, but obtaining a tenancy as the main barrier to be overcome. This is borne out by the figures. In 1989 to 1991, 70 to 75% of BVC students secured pupillage (“Studying for the Bar”, Shapland, Johnson and Wild, 1993), but only 41% of those starting the BVC ended up as tenants (“Starting Practice: Work and Training at the Junior Bar”, Shapland and Sorsby, 1995). At that time the BVC was open only to students intending to join the Bar of England and
Wales. Part of the loss was through students failing the BVC (20% in 1989-90), but the main problem was moving from pupillage to tenancy. Today, passing the BVC has approximately the same level of difficulty as 17 years ago. About 80 to 85% of students pass the BVC either first time or after the resits. Table 1 shows the numbers in recent years enrolled on the BVC, registering their second six months’ pupillage, and becoming tenants (statistics from the Bar Council’s website). Now, the main problem is obtaining pupillage. Pupillage numbers are down, probably as a result of compulsory funding. The big fall, from 700 to about 550, corresponds with the implementation of compulsory funded pupillages. Pupillage numbers are now closely linked to the number of tenancies each year. Chambers seem to have abandoned the ageold idea of offering pupillage as a matter of social conscience. The feeling is that, having invested in funded pupillages, chambers want to keep their pupils as tenants, but will only invest in those likely to be taken on as tenants.
Table 1
BVC students, Second Six
Year
BVC students
2nd six pupils
New Tenants
2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06
1,403 1,379 1,332 1,406 1,697 1,745
700 724 702 557 598 552
535 541 698 601 544
Pupils and new Tenants
Not available
(b)
Two more BVC Providers have been validated in recent months, so the number of BVC students is likely to increase to about 1,900 in the near future.
Social Barriers to Joining the Bar In the days when 94% of those who passed the BVC entered chambers as pupils, there should have been few restrictions based on socio-economic grounds for becoming a pupil. The main problems at that time were access to the profession for female and ethnic minority applicants. Table 2 sets out figures for female and ethnic minority respondents to surveys from 1987-91 from “Starting Practice: Work and Training at the Junior Bar”, Shapland and Sorsby 1995.
Table 2 Female and Ethnic Minority Survey Respondents 1987-91 Stage
Female Ethnic Minority respondents respondents
BVC 1989-90 39% Pupils 1990-91 44% Tenants up to 29% 4 years’ call 1987-88
14% 5% 1%
By 2005-06 women had overtaken men in overall numbers being Called to the Bar (51.5%). As time has progressed women and ethnic minorities have become better represented at the Bar, as the figures for the position in 2006 (Bar Council) in Table 3 show.
Table 3 Self-Employed Barristers December 2006
The overall result is that in 198991 almost everyone who passed Total No. with ethnic Female Ethnic group data minority the BVC (about 80%) obtained 12,034 10,572 3,653 1,098 pupillage (about 75% of those Number 30.3% 10.4% starting the BVC, so about 94% Percentage of those passing), but only 50% of those passing became tenants. In 2004-05, about 80% passed the BVC Intensifying competition in recent years (say 1,360), but only 44% of those secured has meant that increasing numbers of wellpupillage, and 40% of those passing became qualified students are being unsuccessful tenants. in their search for pupillage. With the Two other factors have to be kept in mind: fragmentation of the BVC across a number (a) In some BVC Providers, up to 40% of Providers, there has been a lack of the students are from overseas, of recent research on how this has and have no intention of practising impacted on the ability of students p.20 in England and Wales; and across the range of socio-economic