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19 January 2012 / Jane Ching , Natalie Byrom
Issue: 7497 / Categories: Features , Training & education , Profession
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Question time

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Jane Ching & Natalie Byrom grapple with the present & future demands of legal services education

 

Happy new year, happy new legal services landscape. With the first (conveyancing) ABSs already in place and others to follow, ever-present changes to legal aid, and university applications decreasing, predicting where the legal profession might be in even the very near future is an enormous task. Then work backwards to work out what kind of education and training system might be needed to equip people to work in the new landscape and to deal with future changes to it. And then suggest how that system might best be regulated (by, for example, regulating training providers and courses; by regulating outcomes; by regulating how individual legal services businesses are conducted, or some combination of all of the above?). All of this is the challenge with which the legal education and training review research team has been grappling since the middle of last year.

Question marks

You may well have seen the research questions we
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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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NEWS
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NLJ this week: Tightening the screws on JCT terminations
The Supreme Court has delivered a decisive ruling on termination under the JCT Design & Build form. Writing in NLJ this week, Andrew Singer KC and Jonathan Ward, of Kings Chambers, analyse Providence Building Services v Hexagon Housing Association [2026] UKSC 1, which restores the first-instance decision and curbs contractors’ termination rights for repeated late payment
NLJ this week: Old rules, fresh warnings in employment law
Secondments, disciplinary procedures and appeal chaos all feature in a quartet of recent rulings. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Smith, barrister and emeritus professor of employment law at UEA, examines how established principles are being tested in modern disputes
NLJ this week: The rise of the ‘ChatGPT client’ rattles the profession
The AI revolution is no longer a distant murmur—it’s at the client’s desk. Writing in NLJ this week, Peter Ambrose, CEO of The Partnership and Legalito, warns that the ‘AI chickens’ have ‘come home to roost’, transforming not just legal practice but the lawyer–client relationship itself
NLJ this week: Surrogacy children caught in succession gap
A High Court ruling involving the Longleat estate has exposed the fault line between modern family building and historic trust drafting. Writing in NLJ this week, Charlotte Coyle, director and family law expert at Freeths, examines Cator v Thynn [2026] EWHC 209 (Ch), where trustees sought approval to modernise trusts that retain pre-1970 definitions of ‘child’, ‘grandchild’ and ‘issue’
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Fresh proposals to criminalise ‘nudification’ apps, prioritise cyberflashing and non-consensual intimate images, and even ban under-16s from social media have reignited debate over whether the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA 2023) is fit for purpose. Writing in NLJ this week, Alexander Brown, head of technology, media and telecommunications, and Alexandra Webster, managing associate, Simmons & Simmons, caution against reactive law-making that could undermine the Act’s ‘risk-based and outcomes-focused’ design
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