The Gazette 1979

JULY-AUGUST

1979

GAZETTE

The ususal —but not the only —method of entry is by having a law degree. Apprenticeship normally lasts three years. The student will usually attend at the office of his "Master" solicitor for two or three months to get a feel of a law office before embarking on the Society's Pro- fessional Course. This is an intensive five and a half day week in a workshop setting; it is followed by 18 months in the office of the master solicitor and a further two months back in the Society's Law School in Dublin doing the Advaiiced Course. The student: staff ratio is 12: 1 with instruction given by practising solicitors for the most part. Over 130 members of the profession are taking part as tutors in the Professional Course. This comprehensive preparation will enable the newly qualified solicitor to apply immediately his theoretical knowledge and give a better service to die public, having had a basic practical training during the Professional Course. The Society wishes to stress the following points: (1) The cost to the student of the Professional and Advanced Courses is £1,050; examination and registra- tion fees (which have not been increased) bring the total cost to the student to £1,315 over three years (not £1,315 a year as has been suggested. (2) The cost to the student would be greater were it not directly subsidised by the Society and below cost tuition given by members of the profession. (3) Higher Education grants are available to students entitled to grants. (4) The Society has arranged Bank Loans, repayable after the student qualifies, and scholarships and itself gives bursaries —based on need. In the first course, five apprentices secured scholarships or bursaries. (5) The overall cost (including maintenance) to a new regulations student is less than .to an old regulations student because the new course of studies (which is much more intensive) is compressed into a shorter time and also because students who have completed their Professional Course will be paid by their master solicitor — the minimum recommended weekly wage being £30. (6) None of the new regulations apprentices have been charged a fee or premium by their master solicitor. (7) The Society proposed limiting the number to 150 a year and it does so for the following reasons: (a) The Law is the only profession whose members have increased and are increasing. Twenty years ago 40/45 solicitors qualified a year; within the past ten years, the number of solicitors has risen from 1300 to 2200. As of now, over 200 solicitors qualify yearly and there are 1100 students under the old regulations of whom a large proportion will qualify as solicitors. (b) Between the present time and 1986, the number of solicitors will increase from 2200 to more than 3300 —an increase of over 50% even though the projected rise in population during the same period will be 1% a year. (c; The Society 's assessment of the Supply and Demand for solicitors up to 1991 assumes increased numbers of lawyers in industry, commerce and the public service; it assumes continuing economic growth demanding greater services in domestic and E.E.C. law; it specifically takes the Pringle Committee recommendations into account and allows for 100

solicitors engaged whole time in civil legal aid areas. Even so, the projection ends up with a surplus of solicitors in 1986. (d) It would be a waste of resources as well as doing no service to those students who end up as a surplus to have anyone spend three or more years qualifying as a solicitor and then find that there were no employment opportunities in the profession. (8) The Higher Education Authority has not stated that it is prepared to subsidise the new course. Indeed, it could not make a grant to the Society at this stage because the Society is not an institution to which the authority is entitled to make such grants. (9) It is sometimes alleged that the student body is largely comprised of solicitors' children but of the 73 students on the first Professional Course, two are children of solicitors, one a brother and one related to a solicitor as a first cousin once removed. (10) 73 Apprentices sought places in the first Pro- fessional Course, 73 were granted places and all 73 have embarked on the Course. None fell out because of the cost of the Course. (11) In March 1977 the Society, by circular letter to all post-primary schools in the Republic — notified intend- ing apprentices that there would be a limit of 150 places in the Law School and that no guarantees of entry into that school could be given to law graduates. The Society concedes that those students who had entered the univer- sity law faculties in 1975 and 1976 ought to have and will have automatic entry into its Law School provided they obtain their university law degree within a reasonable time but this automatic entry arrangement does not extend to students who commenced their university law course in October 1977 and they will have to pass the Society's entrance examination in the six core legal subjects already mentioned. The Society does recognise that a problem exists for those students by reason of the March closing date for Central Applications Office applications in which students would have set down their initial preference for university courses. To meet that problem, the Society has decided that for the Professional Course commencing in November 1980 and for the next ensuing course, there will be 150 places available for competition to gain entry into its Law School in addition to die places for guaranteed entrants. Thus, there will be 150 places available for com- petition by the 1977 entrants into the B.C.L. courses at U .C .C. and U.C .D. who will graduate in 19 80 - these being the persons claiming that they were not properly informed— together with the non-law graduates. The purpose of the new course of training is to provide the country with solicitors who can give the public the highest quality of legal service. The Society believes that it will do so. 3rd May, 1979. R. W. RADLEY M.Sc., C.Chem., M.R.I.C. HANDWRITING AND DOCUMENT EXAMINER 220, Elgar Road, Reading, Berkshire, England. Telephone (0734) 81977

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