Bar Council report attacks legal executive and solicitor advocates, as well as BPTC providers

A report funded by the Bar Council has strongly criticised the trend of legal executive advocates and solicitor-advocates. The report also expresses deep concern about the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) and those institutions which offer it.

The Criminal Justice, Advocacy and the Bar report ("the Rivlin report"), published in March 2015, was undertaken by the criminal justice reform group of the Bar Council and chaired by Geoffrey Rivlin QC. It was funded by the Bar Council on behalf of its members; as Lawyer2B reports, it is the third report in 12 months to focus on the current state of advocacy in criminal courts.

Since the Court and Legal Services Act 1990, the Bar has no longer controlled a monopoly on high court advocacy rights. Chartered legal executives can become qualified to exercise greater rights of audience in civil, criminal and family. The report calls for a ban on legal executives advocating, arguing that: "We do not believe that legal executives should have rights of audience in the Crown Court". The Rivlin report went onto suggest that, should the situation remain unchanged, "the client should be advised of their right to use a solicitor or barrister to represent them, together with clear notification of the contrasting qualification for the work". In response to the report, the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives - speaking to Legal Cheek - expressed its disappointment at not be consulted, adding the Rivlin report contained "inaccuracies".

The Rivlin report expresses significant disapproval of BPTC providers, suggesting that: "Commercial providers are using the system to make money from people with no realistic prospect of pupillage". It added that the postgraduate course is "not highly regarded by practitioners" and the high course costs result in Inns of Court awards disproportionally funding providers rather than supporting students as intended. Finally, it recommends that the Bar Standards Board should make mandatory requirements for providers to report on the success rates of their BPTC graduates achieving pupillage, as well as a transparent selection procedure.