Originally Posted by Unregistered

The 3rd law school's aim is noble, but c'mon lets be honest here - it is not going to work. Unless you can restrict its grads to practicing only in community areas of law, but that is not possible for all kinds of practical and politically-incorrect reasons. Ultimately, it will still be used by mid-career switchers as a means of getting into practice in the more lucrative, commercial areas of law. so, meh...

You're correct that in most small firms, ie the ones most likely to practice community-centric law like family, criminal and conveyancing, don't have formal training programmes. Most are solo practitioners or 1 - 2 man firms with haphazard hiring, if they hire at all. In 5 years, they probably take in like 1 or 2 trainees? For obvious reasons, they also lack the resources to conduct structured trainee programmes. Of course, this is not to disparage community lawyers. A trainee under a competent & experienced lawyer could learn far more than a trainee in one of the big firms where he/she is just a cog in the wheel. But obviously, the quality will vary widely throughout.

Ultimately I think the new SIM law school is symptomatic of our government's approach to solving problems. Building new, shiny things. Tourism hub? New casinos! Shortage of doctors? New medical school! Shortage of lawyers? New law school! Only time will tell whether it really works.