The relevance of the topic is due to a significant increase in the importance of law as a social controller of public life. The basis for the development of the legal system in Ukraine is the quality of higher legal education. The aim of the study is to analyze the current state of the external quality system of higher legal education in Ukraine. The following methods of scientific knowledge were used in the article: analysis of legislative and regulatory documents in the field of education, analysis of statistical data, interpretative and analytical method, comparison of different views on the problem under study, induction, deduction, systematization. The dynamic of changes in the results of such procedures of external quality assurance of higher legal education as licensing, accreditation of educational programs, independent external assessment is analyzed. The analysis confirms the persistence of negative trends in the development of the system of higher legal education which results, in particular, in a decrease in the quality of legal training, which was stipulated by a decrease in the volume of lawyers' training on the one hand, and, on the other hand, of an unreasonably large number of the universities that train lawyers, which leads to reducing the requirements for applicants, and, consequently, the quality of legal education. Comparison of the results of these external assessment procedures allows us to state that the highest quality training of lawyers is carried out by the leading state classical universities and higher legal educational institutions. The impact of external quality assurance procedures in higher legal education should be supported by the development of an internal quality assurance system at the universities.