Inside the New ICCA Bar Course with Lynda Gibbs QC (Hon), Dean of the ICCA

The Inns of Court College of Advocacy (ICCA) has announced that King's College London (KCL) will act as the validating body for its new Bar Course. Successful students will receive a Postgraduate Diploma in Bar Practice from KCL, while the ICCA has also registered with the Office for Students as a higher education provider.

The new course is designed to address some of the concerns surrounding the cost, accessibility and structure of Bar training. It will be delivered in 2 parts from September 2020, combining online academic study with practical, skills-based training in the Inns of Court.

We spoke to Lynda Gibbs, Dean of the ICCA, about the thinking behind the course, its blind admissions process and how it aims to prepare future barristers for the realities of practice.

A career at the Bar and beyond

Could you start by telling us about your career and how you came to be Dean of the ICCA?

I am a languages graduate, but my first professional role was with the Crown Prosecution Service, which sponsored me to qualify at the Bar.

I practised for 7 years before moving into legal education. I taught on the vocational course at Nottingham Law School and subsequently joined Kaplan Law School, where I ran the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) for 4 years.

I later became Design Director for a new BPTC at the University of Law before joining the Inns of Court in 2015 as Director of Programmes. I became Dean of the ICCA in September 2019.

Why introduce a new Bar Course?

What motivated the ICCA to develop the new course, and what shortcomings did you identify in existing Bar training?

The first issue was cost. At the time, the cost of qualifying at the Bar in London was approaching £20,000.

We were concerned that students, including those with weaker A Level results and lower second class degrees, could be offered places on Bar courses and required to commit substantial sums of money before knowing whether they would ultimately succeed on the course or secure pupillage.

That is not to suggest that students with those academic backgrounds cannot become excellent barristers. However, the statistics relating to pupillage were not favourable. The proportion of pupillage holders with a 2:2 degree was very small.

Too many students were therefore paying significant amounts of money, completing a 30-week vocational course and potentially finding themselves heavily in debt if they failed. Even those who passed could face considerable difficulty securing pupillage.

We wanted to reduce that financial risk by dividing the course into 2 parts.

The challenging criminal and civil litigation and alternative dispute resolution examinations are taken first as part of the online component. This allows students to assess whether the Bar is genuinely the right career for them before committing to the more expensive second stage.

If they decide that the Bar is not for them, they will not have made the same level of financial investment. They can also study without necessarily having to pay London rent and can continue working while completing the first part of the course.

The second motivation was accessibility. We wanted to address concerns about elitism within the profession, and our blind admissions process is one way in which we have sought to do that.

A different approach to admissions

The blind admissions process is unusual in law school applications. How will it work?

Applicants complete an online application form, which filters out those who do not meet the required academic criteria. However, we are deliberately agnostic about where applicants studied.

Applicants then answer 6 questions developed in consultation with an equality and diversity consultant. The purpose is to make the process as fair and objective as possible.

The shortlisting committee then creates a shortlist based solely on the applicants' candidate numbers and their responses to the questions.

At this stage, the committee does not know the applicants' names or other information concerning their educational, social or cultural backgrounds.

Shortlisted applicants are then invited to selection days, where they complete a series of practical exercises. These include presenting a short piece of advocacy, completing a written exercise and participating in an interview.

These exercises have also been developed in consultation with our equality and diversity consultant.

Keeping the intake small

How many students will be accepted onto the course?

We want to keep the intake relatively small. In future years, we intend to accept up to 240 students.

For the first year, however, we will accept up to 100 students.

Developing practical advocacy skills

The advocacy classes will include specialist sessions on vulnerable witnesses, youth justice advocacy and expert witnesses. Why was this considered important?

We wanted the course to place a strong emphasis on advocacy because advocacy is fundamental to the profession.

Barristers have generally received good training in the fundamentals of advocacy. However, less attention has traditionally been given to preparing students for more nuanced situations, such as dealing with litigants in person, children, vulnerable witnesses or witnesses whose first language is not English.

I know from my other role at the ICCA, where I prepare continuing professional development (CPD) materials for the practising Bar, that these skills are increasingly required in practice.

We therefore wanted to give future barristers a strong foundation in these areas from the beginning of their professional training.

The objective is to ensure that students are better prepared to deal with the realities and complexities of practice once they enter the profession.

Applying for the course

Applications for the current cycle are now closed. When will prospective students be able to apply again?

There will be 2 ICCA Bar Course cycles each year, so there may be more than 1 application window.

Interested applicants should continue to check the ICCA website for further information and updates.

Thank you very much, Lynda.