Spring2012
a helpful reply from the FSA which is available on the CLLS website.
6. ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENT FUND MANAGER DIRECTIVE – SEVERAL CONSULTATIONS
FSA Discussion Paper 12/1
The Committee submitted an interim and a final response to the FSA Discussion Paper. Particular thanks to Tamasin Little (SJ Berwin), Simon Morris (CMS Cameron McKenna), Nick Kynoch (Berwin Leighton Paisner) and Ben Kingsley (Slaughter and May) for their assistance with this submission.
Response to the ESMA Discussion Paper on Types of AIFM
The Committee submitted a response to this ESMA Discussion Paper which contains some important discussion on the nature of an Alternative Investment Fund and the meaning of definitions in the Directive.
7. ESMA CONSULTATION PAPER – ASPECTS OF THE MiFID COMPLIANCE FUNCTION
The Committee provided comments on the ESMA guidelines. Particular thanks to Robert Finney (Dewey & LeBoeuf) for his work on this submission.
8. ACQUISITIONS DIRECTIVE
The Committee, through Chris Bates (Clifford Chance LLP), participated in the response by the Law Society Company Law Committee on the Commission Consultation on the Application of the Acquisitions Directive.
The AIFMD and MiFID compliance submissions were made recently and cover a wide range of issues. They are available for review on the CLLS website.
Margaret Chamberlain, Chairman, Travers Smith LLP
Training Committee
The key issue for the Committee continues to be the Joint Review of Legal Education and Training being run by the SRA, the Bar Standards Board and ILEX Professional Standards.
This is the most significant review of legal education for some decades as it
The Review is a research exercise which is due to be completed by December 2012 after which the regulators will decide which of the recommendations coming out of the Review will be implemented. Those changes will need to go through the normal consultation process so any changes to the relevant regulations are not likely to take effect until late in 2013 or into 2014.
It is too early to say how CLLS member firms might be affected by the recommendations to come out of the Review. However, given the
is reviewing the legal education needs of the entire “legal workforce”, that is, everyone offering any kind of legal services, whether those providers are qualified or not.
While the Review is being managed by the three named regulators, the Legal Services Board (whose Chair, David Edmunds, announced the review in 2010) is taking a close interest in it. The indications are that the LSB expect the Review to produce some radical ideas to ensure the “legal workforce” is fit for purpose in the light of the changing legal services environment. This would probably mean there being a number of integrated pathways allowing access to the different sectors and levels of the “legal workforce” for a diverse population of would-be entrants (in line with the Review’s announced social mobility agenda).
researchers conducting the Review welcome contributions, the CLLS sees it as important to be proactive in presenting the views of its members to the Review. With that in mind, the CLLS has submitted a “Position Paper” (available on the CLLS website) to the Review setting out the CLLS’s views on the key stages of the training continuum for solicitors as well as giving views on access to the professions and on standards.
The Training Committee has been tracking the work on the Review via the Review’s dedicated website (www.
letr.org.uk).
So far, the researchers working on the Review have conducted a “literature review” of best practices in legal education across the world over the Autumn and Winter 2011. The results of that piece of work are available on the Review’s website.
The work has influenced the first major Paper to come our of the Review – their “Discussion Paper 01/2012 – Key Issues (1) : Call for Evidence” (the “Discussion Paper”) which is available on the LETR website – see the link below:
http://letr.org.uk/publications/ briefing-and-discussion-papers/
CLLS members are recommended to read that Paper and note the deadline for comments (10 May 2012) – see link below.
http://letr.org.uk/publications/
That link will give the deadlines for comments on all the Papers generated by the researchers going forward.
The Discussion Paper 01/2012 did not follow the order of the CLLS’s Position Paper but there is a useful comparison with the Position Paper and commentary on the Discussion Paper available on the CLLS website: (
http://www.citysolicitors.org.uk/ Default.aspx?sID=968&lID=0).
The Discussion Paper has highlighted some emerging issues – the knowledge and skills gaps of students coming out of the Academic Stage of training, the mismatch of numbers of LPC “graduates” and available Training Contracts, the selection system for entrants into study courses, the impact of the increasing prevalence of
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