The Gazette 1980

GAZETTE

APRIL 1980

Society hosts Joint Education Meeting

other. The next meeting in the series will take place in 1981 in Edinburgh.

• Those present at the meeting and appearing in the cover photo are (from left to right): Professor Larry Sweeney, Law Society, Mr. Frank Daly, Vice-Chairman and Mr. John Buckley, Chairman of the Law Society's Education Committee, Professor Richard Woulfe, Law Society, Mr. W. Alan Logan, Northern Ireland, Mr. James Elliott, Northern Ireland, Mr. Christopher Snowling, England and Wales, Mr. Richard Holbrook, England and Wales] Mr. Comghall McNally, Northern Ireland, Mr. James J. Ivers] Director General of the Law Society, Mr. Christopher Hewetson] England and Wales, Mr. G. R. G. Graham, Scotland, Professor Philip Love, Scotland, Mr. R. A. Edwards, President, Law Society of Scotland, Mrs. Carolyn Slater, Scotland, Mr. Eric Taylor, England and Wales and Mr. Arthur Hoole, England and Wdes.' Incorporated Law Society of Ireland EXAMINATION TIMETABLE 1980 Closing dale for receipt Examination of entries Dales Book-keeping 11 June 21 May Repeat of Final Examination — 1st Part 18-25 June (inclusive) 2 June I st and 2nd Irish 8 and 9 July 12 June Preliminary Examination 15 & 16 July 12 June I st, 2nd & 3rd Law Examinations 13-25 August (inclusive) 4 ju| y Book keeping 7 October 15 September Ist and 2nd Irish 2 & 3 December 3 November Final Examination — Ist Part (not Fixed) All examinations to be held at Blackhall Place unless notice given to the contrary. INVESTIGATIONS Full Photographic and Surveillance Equipment available for all assignments. Contact: CHASE RESEARCH, 70 NORTHUMBERLAND ROAD, BALLSBRIDGE, PRESENTATION OF PARCHMENTS IN 1980 Wednesday, 25 June Wednesday, 29 October

The second joint meeting of the Education Committees of the Law Societies of England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was held at Blackhall Place, on January 31st and February 1st, 1980. Each of the Societies has introduced radical changes to its educational systems in the last few years, indeed so recent are the changes, that only in Northern Ireland has the first batch of students passed through the system. While at first sight there are obvious differences between the new systems, e.g. the Northern Ireland system is a joint Solicitor/Bar Training System followed by practice for the Restricted Certificate, the Scottish have a University organised but practitioner taught voca- tional course, followed by traineeship in a Solicitor's office, the England and Wales system has special courses at Polytechnics and the College of Law, followed by Apprenticeship, and of course our system is a "Sandwich Course" comprising a professional course, service as an Apprentice followed by an advanced course, what emerged was how similar the aims and approaches of all the Societies were. The differences were often brought about by local circumstances, e.g. in Northern Ireland linking the new Institute for the Queen's University Belfast made sense. Queens had the only University law faculty in Northern Ireland, and in Scotland the Universi- hes had long since taken over the training of Solicitors, w hile in England and Wales, the sheer size of the profession and the numbers seeking entry to articles in a n y given year, 3,000 places are available in the training courses, ruled out centralisation. The availability of Higher Education Grants dictated that training schemes remain within existing third level institutions in each of the jurisdictions. The problem of estimating the demand for Solicitors fnd providing an adequate supply is common to all four jurisdictions, and indeed to other parts of the common 'aw world, particularly Australia and New Zealand where over supply has reached serious levels, and the Society's '978 study on the supply and demand of Solicitors in the Republic of Ireland has been the subject of interested enquiry. A major area in which the Society's professional course differs from its U.K. counterparts is in its abandonment of the old "Eight Questions - do Six in bree hours" type examination paper and its replacement y a continual testing and assessment system in the Professional course. Other topics touched on included continuing legal education courses, use of audio visual equipment, and monitoring of apprenticeship. One of the topics discussed was the reciprocal recogni- ,Q n of qualifications, where the host country was embarrassed to find that because of statutory restraint it w as unable to offer the same advances towards mutual rec °gnition as the other jurisdictions had achieved. Meetings of this nature provide useful cross-fertilisa- , o n °f ideas enabling the participants to learn by other Peoples mistakes rather than their own and hopefully r e s u l t each Society borrowing the best ideas of the

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