qualified lawyer transfer scheme (qlts): client-centred assessment of qualified lawyers
DESCRIPTION
Slides for the presentation by Mandy Gill (University of Northumbria), Paul Maharg and Jenny Rawstorne (Solicitors Regulation Authority) at the Learning in Law Annual Conference 2011.TRANSCRIPT
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Qualified Lawyer Transfer Scheme (QLTS): client-centred assessment of
qualified lawyers
Paul Maharg – University of Northumbria
Mandy Gill – SRA
Jenny Rawstorne - SRA
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Preview
1. Define and analyse basic issues in the assessment of working professionals (PM)
2. Outline the regulatory issues facing the SRA working party (JR)
3. Summarise the architecture of the assessment and detail its genealogy in the assessment practices of other professions (MG)
4. Summarise the implications of this approach for assessment of outcomes-based education at undergraduate and postgraduate stages of legal education (PM)
5. Outline proposals for evaluation of the process and content of the QLTS assessment (MG)
• Open discussion – 10 mins
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Basic issues in assessment of working professionals (1)
• Q. What are we assessing?• A. Day One Outcomes
• But this response is only part of the answer…
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Basic issues in assessment of working professionals (2)
• Interaction of knowledge, skill, values• Client experience of lawyer• Awareness by the lawyer of cultural
difference embedded in the assessment• The necessity for the lawyer to bridge legal
cultures
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Basic issues in assessment of working professionals (3)
• Assessment, unless actually carried out longitudinally in the lawyer’s workplace, can never give us a complex profile of the working lawyer. But it can give us evidence of how the lawyer might act in specific circumstances.
• Interpretation of those actions is always problematic when considered post-hoc by experts, less so when experienced by a client
• Even a trained proxy client can only assess some aspects of legal work…
• Therefore a multi-part assessment is essential
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Regulatory issues (1)
• QLTS is SRA’s transfer scheme for lawyers qualified:– elsewhere within the UK– within the EEA and EU– in a recognised international jurisdiction
• Following extensive consultation and approval by Legal Services Board (LSB)
• QLTS replaced the QLTR and QLTT on 1 September 2010
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Regulatory issues (2)
• All changes to the SRA’s regulatory arrangements must now be approved by the LSB
• LSB will consider whether the proposed change:– meets the statutory regulatory objectives; and– adheres to the Better Regulation Principles
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Regulatory issues (3)
Regulatory Objectives include:• Protecting and promoting the interests of
consumers• Encouraging an independent, strong,
diverse and effective legal profession• Promoting and maintaining adherence to the
professional principles
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Regulatory issues (4)
Better Regulation Principles
Regulatory policies should be:• Transparent• Accountable• Proportionate• Consistent • Targeted
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QLTS assessment framework (1)
• QLTS assessments in 3 parts– Part 1 – Multiple Choice Test (MCT)– Part 2 - Objective Structured Clinical
Examination (OSCE)– Part 3 - Technical Legal Skills Test (TLST)
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QLTS assessment framework (2)
• OSCE – primarily tests skills - in 3 subject areas– Business– Criminal and civil litigation– Property and probate
• In each of these areas candidates will rotate through 3 stations– Station 1 – client interview and attendance note– Station 2 – client interview and attendance note– Station 3 – advocacy/oral presentation exercise
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QLTS assessment framework (3)
• TLST – primarily tests skills - in 3 subject areas– Business– Criminal and civil litigation– Property and probate
• In each of these areas candidates will undertake 3 assessed exercises– Exercise 1 – on-line legal research– Exercise 2 – legal writing– Exercise 3 – legal drafting
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QLTS assessment framework (4)
• Other features:– Angoff method of standard-setting– Increased validity of testing method due to:
• Number of questions asked (in MCT)• Number of times a particular skill is tested (in OSCE
and TLST)
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Implications for outcomes-based education (1)
• Can be used for:• Professional remediation – see interview with Kevin
Stirling, lecturer in Simulation, Clinical Skills Centre, U. of Dundee Medical Faculty, on simulation ward activity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzB0oCbAia8&feature=player_embedded
• Professional accreditation, eg work of WS Society on simulated clients, based in part on work of GGSL project – the Signet Accreditation, http://www.thewssociety.co.uk/accreditation/index.asp?tm=24
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Implications for outcomes-based education (2)
• SCs + OSCE can be used for undergraduate learning
• Currently being developed for year 3 of the exempting Masters programme at Northumbria University Law School, in part as a bridge between academic work in years 1 & 2, and clinical experience in year 4. Formative & summative assessment.
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Implications for outcomes-based education (3)
• SCs can also be used in professional programmes, eg:– Strathclyde’s Diploma in Legal Practice (formative as
well as high-stakes assessment of interviewing)– University of New Hampshire’s Daniel Webster
Scholars Honors Program, where SCs are being integrated with SIMPLE simulations to provide an environment that is at once a powerful learning and assessment environment – see Future Ed Conference, Harvard & NYLS: http://www.nyls.edu/user_files/1/3/4/30/58/1053/Garvey&Maharg.pdf.
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Future research
• Formal evaluation by the SRA – impact, form and content of assessment, implementation, use of SCs
• Wider research