The Law Society will next week launch a dedicated advocacy section to build a ‘community’ of solicitor-advocates to match the level of support barristers receive from the Inns of Court.

The Advocacy Section will provide mentoring, training and networking opportunities at ­circuit and national level, the Society said.

It will be open for Crown Prosecution Service solicitors, criminal, civil, family and children advocates, as well as paralegals employed by solicitors with rights of audience.

However, for the first half of 2012 it will focus on criminal advocates to help them prepare for the introduction of the ­proposed Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates.

Law Society president John Wotton will launch the section at Chancery Lane on 26 January. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, and the Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, are due to attend.

Other launch events will be held around the country over the coming months.

Wotton said: ‘Solicitor-advocates are confronting significant challenges at present with reduced public funding and the prospect of regulatory oversight. However, I am convinced that they are more than capable of rising to those challenges. I am pleased that for the first time the Society will be helping with the provision of training and other benefits which will assist their professional development.’

The creation of the section arose from recommendations made by consultant Nick Smedley in his 2010 report, commissioned by the Law Society, on the training of solicitor-advocates.

Smedley identified areas where the Society could better support solicitor-advocates by improving access to training, to make it comparable with that available to barristers.

Criminal higher court advocate Ian Kelcey has led the section’s launch panel. Future activities of the section will be led by both civil and criminal practitioners, the Society said.