Qualified Lawyer Transfer Scheme (QLTS): client-centred assessment of

qualified lawyers

Paul Maharg – University of Northumbria

Mandy Gill – SRA

Jenny Rawstorne - SRA

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

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…

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

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

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

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

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

Regulatory issues (4)

Better Regulation Principles

Regulatory policies should be:• Transparent• Accountable• Proportionate• Consistent • Targeted

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)

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

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

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)

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

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.

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.

Future research

• Formal evaluation by the SRA – impact, form and content of assessment, implementation, use of SCs

• Wider research