My little grandson Daniel was 2 at the end of February. He was in his high chair eating his lunch when a small voice suddenly piped up - “Excuse me, could anyone tell me where my ambulance is?” The sophistication of his request led us all to burst out laughing. How on earth did he learn to speak that phrase? The fact is that he parrots out everything he hears. It is incredible how efficient the human brain is at 2 and a half in absorbing new information. Sadly my brainpower is going in the opposite direction. Why can I not recall names and facts when I ask my brain to dig it out? Sometimes the answer just will not come even though it is a fact I know very well indeed.

The SRA are in the process of publishing their plans for the new Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE). The new ‘Super-exam’ is said to be a combination of the old Solicitors qualifying exam that I took in the 1970s and the current LPC. The old examination was taken after 6 months cramming of facts. It was a learning by rote ‘Tour de France’, exceptional in its gruelling nature and unlike the race itself, pointless. After taking the exam, I went off to Indonesia on VSO to teach English to tin miners and when I came back, I remembered nothing, to the extent that I had forgotten the difference between a freehold and leasehold title. I had however learned lots of new life-skills including what it was like to live for 2 years out in the sticks as stranger in a foreign culture very different to my own. This was very helpful when I started to deal with immigration cases in the UK.

The LPC is a more practical and skills based process but I am not sure it is any better regarded by new recruits to the Solicitors profession. The SQE is still much of an unknown quantity but I for one welcome a new approach. The new examination should be easier to sit by aspiring lawyers around the world and yet does not entirely devalue the practical training obtained by actually doing the job in a legal office. The element of practical training has been the hallmark of the Solicitor’s Profession and it is important that it is still to be valued.

Our ethos at the Jackson Lees Group, why we do what we do, is that we ‘Make a Positive Difference’. This is in the work we do for clients which includes not just what we do but how we do it. It relates to the way we work together, the way we support and help one another to deliver outcomes for clients and finally way we relate to society at large through the work of our Foundation. But this does not just happen because we are qualified solicitors or expert lawyers or we have staff supporting them through HR, business development, customer support or finance and IT. In our personal traits we may be excellent at some things and not so good at others.

That leads me on to the Jackson Lees Training Academy. Through the academy we help our staff look at how they can be better at delivering a positive difference. Where are the gaps in what they know, or what are their weaknesses in how they behave towards others internally or clients externally? This is set out in a personal development plan and then put into practice through attending courses, mentoring or undertaking programmes of training. It is never too late to learn whether we are 2, 22 or 72. Our intention is that the delivery of our legal solutions will continue to benefit as a result of our academy and the learning it promotes.