Number of costs lawyers set to soar as graduates consider alternative legal qualifications

The Association of Costs Lawyers (ACL) has received an 'unprecedented' number of applications for its new training course.

The new training regime, which has been approved by the Legal Services Board (LSB), is designed to ensure that the next generation of costs lawyers are up to the demands of legal practice in the post-Jackson era.

Recent reports suggest that there will be over 12,500 law graduates this year unable to secure a trainee contract or pupillage due to a shortage of available positions. It is against this backdrop that the ACL says there are an increasing number of jobs in the legal costs sector.

The ACL has already received 185 registrations to undertake its three-year qualification, due to commence this month. Previous years has seen the costs lawyer qualification attract around 100 students per annum.

Employer support

Information provided by the ACL shows that 95 per cent of this year's new students will be sponsored by their employer. Cost practice Kain Knight is sponsoring at least 17 of its staff through the course while Masters Legal Costs Services and Law Lords Cost Consultants will enrol eight and seven students respectively.

Irwin Mitchell, which already employs 24 fully-qualified costs lawyers, is enrolling a further 12 members of its staff on this year's ACL course. Steven Green, who heads the costs team at Irwin Mitchell, said: "We encourage all of our costs law fee earners to undertake the ACL qualification. The qualification is very well recognised by the judiciary and the courts. I believe it has the added benefit of enabling qualified costs lawyers to achieve higher rights of audience in costs related matters and higher hourly rates than their non-qualified counterparts."

As SJ reported in July, the fact that costs lawyers are trained and regulated, along with their ability to undertake reserved legal activities, contributed to them being recognised in the recent guideline rates review. From October 2014 they will be able to recover up to Grade B rates under recommendations accepted by the Master of the Rolls.

Chairman of ACL, Sue Nash, commented: "I'm thrilled that so many students - and their employers - recognise the value of a recognised costs qualification. It shows that that the legal profession understands the value of good quality costs advice and how central this has become. This is not only true in an individual case but also across a solicitor's practice as a whole."

New course

The new ACL qualification will be delivered through an online learning platform, accessible on mobile phones and tablets.

Students will take three units, one each year, broken down into various modules. The first two years of the course cover all the fundamental building blocks to become a costs lawyer, including knowledge of procedure, ethics and advocacy. Students will be examined at the end of each year's course with a formal assessment.

In the final year there will be options to allow for specialisation in the costs of different practice areas, such as personal injury and clinical negligence, land law, criminal law, company law, and family law.