Crumbling, creeping or enduring – the foundations of legal knowledge at a time of training reform

Legal Education periodically goes through periods of potential flux. There have been at least five major reviews within the last 50 years comprising two Command Papers - Cmnd 4595 (‘the Ormrod Report’ of 1971) and Cmnd 7648 (‘the Benson Report’ of 1979)) and three reports by the profession (including one by the short lived Advisory Committee on Legal Education and Conduct (ACLEC)). We are currently in the midst of the individual regulatory bodies’ responses to the latest of those reviews - the Legal Education and Training Review 2013. While a range of issues are up for consideration including the work-based element of training and the general requirement of having a degree, the likelihood is that foundation subjects will remain, to the dissatisfaction of some.