Introduction. This article is devoted to the analysis of problems of legal provision of training for higher educated specialists in the field of jurisprudence and political science. These problems are primarily related to the improvement of the quality of higher education and the implementation of popular educational programmes by educational institutions of higher education focused on the particular economic sector and employers’ interests. That is why the introduction of professional standards and the development of professional and public accreditation of educational programmes in the field of jurisprudence and political science are becoming more important. The choice of data analysis is due to the need to improve the training mechanism enabling professionals to acquire fundamental knowledge, and, above all, relevant skills, consciousness in the current regulation of public relations, i.e. to be competitive in the labor market. Purpose. The main goal of the work is to identify problematic aspects of legal provision of training for lawyers and political scientists under the modernization of higher education in Russia. Results. The authors analyzed the legislative regulation of social relations in the training in connection with the development and implementation of professional standards and the improvement of professional public accreditation. Conclusion. The authors conclude that problems may be caused by the fact that the standards lack the awareness of specific professional activities of specialists to be, by contradictions between federal legislation and legal acts of executive bodies, and difficulties in determining the content of professional standards in the field of jurisprudence and political science.