About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

5 Int'l J. Legal Prof. 5 (1998)

handle is hein.journals/injlepro5 and id is 1 raw text is: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION, VOL. 5, NO. 1, 1998 EDITORIAL Professional discord AVROM SHERR Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (University of London), London, UK The first issue for 1998 concentrates on two current areas of professional discord internationally with particular repercussions in England and Wales. First, public funds for legal services in the guise of the judicare model of legal aid, appears to be shrinking throughout the common law world and even in the Netherlands, the one bastion of legal aid in civil law Europe. Funding has been the main area of contention, but that has led on to consideration of other delivery models including salaried lawyer models and mixed private practice and salaried lawyers. Tamara Goriely's paper in relation to criminal legal aid comes as the Scottish public defender pilot is about to begin in Edinburgh with an experimental office to undertake criminal representation in summary cases. It is therefore an important time to take stock and consider the international experience. Secondly, key aspects of self-regulation of the profession are coming increas- ingly under scrutiny as de-regulation and competition bite ever more deeply into the professional fabric. Some practitioners openly question the wisdom of propping up their less efficient or less honest colleagues in the shape of client security funds. In England and Wales the mutual fund for solicitors is in crisis. Mutual funds for lawyers professional indemnity insurance have run a 20-year cycle in England and Wales, starting with the master plan insurance in the 1970's. Evidencing the fragmentation of the profession over this period, the mutual fund has been exhibiting cracks for some time. Firms have had to pay an excess based on size and claims history is supposed to be a factor in consideration of premiums at some stage. Assistant solicitors are not entirely covered by the Solicitors Indemnity Fund scheme, despite Lord Donaldson's (then Master of the Rolls) request to the Law Society Council for it to do so. Differential risks are clearly presented by solicitors in different areas of work and in different structures and size of firm. The result has been the Appleby Report which the Law Society of England and Wales currently has under consideration. Mark Davies' article chronicles how we have arrived at this position. In the legal education section Julie MacFarlane looks at the problems of assessing the reflective ness of practitioners. In the year of the demise of Donald Sch6n, the originator of the concept, Julie MacFarlane shows how a pedagogic perspective contrasts with the perspective of professional practice. She argues that it 0969-5958/98/010005-02 @ Carfax Publishing Ltd 5

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most