Dinner at Lincoln’s Inn

On Friday 1 November 2013 I was invited by the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn for its annual Law Tutor’s Forum and a rather sumptuous dinner.

An Inn is an association of lawyers mainly barristers organised for mutual support and education of barristers. Lincoln’s Inn is fortunate in being able to occupy about 11 acres of prime central London historical property behind the High Court and next to Lincoln’s Inn Square since about 1422.

The evening opened with a short talk on the current proposals for the reforms in legal education and training followed by a discussion.  The main concern revolved around the question of regulation of the way lawyers provide legal services to the public in the face of the political dominance of market ideology and whether, in the face of the ‘market’, the legal profession should continue to be regulated at the training stage following academic stage of legal education. Currently the Solicitors’ Regularity Authority and the Bar Standards Board between them regulate access to practice in the legal profession by assessing not only competencies but also ethical and professional standards.