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13 J. Prof. Legal Educ. 1 (1995)
National Competency Standards: Are They the Answer for Legal Education and Training

handle is hein.journals/proleged13 and id is 5 raw text is: Journal of Professional Legal Education VoL 13 No. 1 NATIONAL COMPETENCY STANDARDS: ARE THEY THE ANSWER FOR LEGAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING? Gayle Gasteen This article examines the difficulties facing law students in obtaining the practical training which is a precondition to admission as a solicitor. It looks at the shortcomings currently apparent in the legal education continuum in providing education and training which will produce competent lawyers. It examines the recent literature on lawyer competency and the adoption of the competency standards framework by other professions. It concludes that the way is open to the legal profession to adopt a competency framework as a basis for national standards. LEGAL EDUCATION IN CRISIS It has become increasingly difficult for law graduates to fulfil the practical requirements for admission to practise as a solicitor. Traditionally, in Queensland this requirement has been met by articles of clerkship or alternatively undertaking the legal practice course after a period of education at law school. It has become difficult for graduates to obtain positions as articled clerks or in the legal practice course. The reasons for this are two-fold: a rise in the numbers of graduates from the increased number of law schools and the coincidental down-turn in the economy, resulting in fewer new positions for law graduates. As reported in 'Elusive Articles: It's a Buyer's Market in the Legal Staff Marketplace' (Proctor October 1992: 7), those seeking articles: ... had no idea of the scarcity of openings. Taking on a small but realistic number of articled clerks is seen by most firms as better for office morale than culling them at the employed solicitor stage. This view was replicated in a Sydney Morning Herald article, (January 8, 1993: 3) entitled 'Grim Outlook for New Lawyers: College' indicating that statistics from the NSW College of Law - the compulsory pre-admission training in NSW - revealed that only 53% of its graduates from June 1992 had found work as solicitors. Comment by the then President of the Law Society of NSW, Mr John Nelson blamed the universities for the oversupply of law graduates. The Australian Financial Review of June 18, 1993 (page 9) reported that the flood of graduates onto the legal market combined with reductions in the annual recruiting of law firms means that more than 40% of new graduates are unable to get jobs as lawyers. ESTABLISHMENT OF COMPETENCY STANDARDS FOR THE PROFESSIONS In Australia, industry restructuring is resulting in many professions establishing competency standards. The situation begs the question of whether the establishment and assessment of competency standards could provide the solution

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