The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has confirmed that it has withdrawn from the voluntary code governing the recruitment of trainees.
The code provides best practice for graduate recruitment and stipulates, amongst other things, that offers (a) can only be made in an undergraduate's final year and (b) have to be kept open for four weeks. Nearly all major law firms are signed up, and the SRA was too. Until last week. The news leaked out on Wednesday and it was forced to put out a statement. Crispin Passmore, Director for Policy, said "we have taken the decision to withdraw from the Code on the basis that it is not appropriate to be involved in recruitment practices and procedures. A further announcement will follow in relation to the exact timing of our withdrawal."
It isn't clear why the SRA thinks it "not appropriate" to oversee entry into the profession which it regulates. But it's not entirely surprising. The SRA's most recent contribution to the welfare of graduates was to scrap the trainee minimum wage, so to be fair it has form for doing spectacularly stupid things.
The Association of Graduate Recruiters said that while the code is still technically extant, it can't continue to have any weight without the regulator as a signatory. There is now far less of a moral obligation on firms to sign up to the code, and grad rec partners have warned of a free-for-all with employers scrabbling around snapping up top students whilst still in their first year at university.
In reality this seems unlikely. But surely the profession's regulator should be tightening up best practices rather than driving a coach and horses through them.
Tip Off ROF
The code provides best practice for graduate recruitment and stipulates, amongst other things, that offers (a) can only be made in an undergraduate's final year and (b) have to be kept open for four weeks. Nearly all major law firms are signed up, and the SRA was too. Until last week. The news leaked out on Wednesday and it was forced to put out a statement. Crispin Passmore, Director for Policy, said "we have taken the decision to withdraw from the Code on the basis that it is not appropriate to be involved in recruitment practices and procedures. A further announcement will follow in relation to the exact timing of our withdrawal."
It isn't clear why the SRA thinks it "not appropriate" to oversee entry into the profession which it regulates. But it's not entirely surprising. The SRA's most recent contribution to the welfare of graduates was to scrap the trainee minimum wage, so to be fair it has form for doing spectacularly stupid things.
Arrr, the code... |
The Association of Graduate Recruiters said that while the code is still technically extant, it can't continue to have any weight without the regulator as a signatory. There is now far less of a moral obligation on firms to sign up to the code, and grad rec partners have warned of a free-for-all with employers scrabbling around snapping up top students whilst still in their first year at university.
In reality this seems unlikely. But surely the profession's regulator should be tightening up best practices rather than driving a coach and horses through them.
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The SRA often makes stupid decisions and deserves much of the criticism it receives, but not on this occasion, where the SRA has done the right thing.
Bear in mind that law is not an all graduate profession - there is the ILEX route and soon there will be apprentices, which to me looks like a return to traditional articles and a change to have a greater diversity of entrants into the profession.