Young Legal Aid Lawyers (‘YLAL’) implore the SRA, as our regulator, to take urgent and decisive action to address the concerning ethnic group attainment gap in SQE assessments. With the release of the attainment data, a clear gap in attainment on the basis of ethnicity can beread more
Young Legal Aid Lawyers (‘YLAL’) has been made aware of an informal announcement by the SRA and Kaplan (who are responsible for assessing SQE examinations), which will mean a delay to many hoping to sit the SQE2 examinations scheduled for October 2022. This was communicated throughread more
Sir Christopher Bellamy QC published his report on the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR), dated 29 November 2021. This was a wide ranging review which considered the whole of the criminal legal aid system, from police station through to appeal.Sir Christopher made 19 recommendations for theread more
This article was guest-written by Craig Tickner, the President of CILEX (the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives) . Around 21% of solicitors and 34% of barristers attended fee-paying schools, compared to 7% of the general population. More than half have parents with degree-level qualifications, compared to 19% in theread more
On 8th February 2022, Young Legal Aid Lawyers (YLAL) published its third and final report on the impact of Covid-19 on its members’ working lives. The report constitutes results from a survey that was conducted between 29th November 2021 and 20th December 2021 which weread more
We are grateful to YLAL member, Rachel Kelly, for writing this original content piece.COVID-19 has had a severe impact on life as we know it. This article will explore the effect on students. From bar exams crisis to the cancellation of placements and postponement ofread more
We are grateful to Amany for this piece, who is a YLAL member and currently undertaking work experience to save up for her upcoming Bar course.On 17 September 2020, the Ministry of Justice published its most recent statistics on the diversity of the judiciary. Theread more
This piece was written by YLAL members Chloe Darcy and Ella Cornwall.How does Legal Aid need to be reformed in order to ensure access to justice in a post COVID-19 society?The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on society are on-going and serious. Public services areread more
This piece was written by YLAL member Maariyaah Zamir, a recent LLB graduate.The subject of flexible and extended working hours across civil, family and criminal courts has been discussed at great length over recent years. As part of the Court Reform Programme, early and lateread more
On 21 August 2020, the Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland QC, wrote to YLAL in response to our submission to the consultation on the accelerated areas of the Criminal Legal Aid Review. YLAL's full submission to the consultation can be found here. YLAL believes that the accelerated arearead more