The Gazette 1989

A pril 1989

GAZETTE

From the President . . .

we may have to involve the univer- sities further than we have in some f o rm of post-graduate pre- professional training to circumvent the physical limitations of our ac- commodation in Blackhall Place and that of the Barristers in the King's Inns, and to counter our difficulties in finding enough practitioners able and willing to teach in the Society's Law School. It is a constant complaint of the universities that their law graduates should have to face another law ex- am to gain entrance to our training system. I have been travelling with the Director-General and Professors Woulfe and Sweeney to meet the different universities to seek to per- suade t hem to offer greater language and business options in the Law Degrees provided by their faculties. I believe that at present too much "black letter" law is be- ing taught inside the university degrees and there should be a much greater openness to the teachings and skills of other faculties. In the context of the Single Market who can contest that an increased knowledge of languages and broader commercial awareness are not essential? These I believe are topics that will continue to be on the agenda for some years to come. •

profession in this jurisdiction. In ad- dition the Law Society needs the power to exempt Northern Irish and overseas solicitors from having to serve an apprenticeship. It is hoped that thereafter an Irish Solicitor going to England will (on passing an examination in con- veyancing and " gene r al awareness" of the English legal system) be admitted as an English Solicitor limited to restricted prac- tice for a period of three years, that is practising in a firm, either as assistant or in partnership. We, for our part, anticipate offering three years restricted practice as the sole entrance requirement without ex- amination. If you consider that there are at least 150 Irish Solicitors in London, you will appreciate that in the con- text of the Law Society, this is a Bar Association of considerable size. This brings me to reflect that last year, for the first time in many years, the number of practising Certificates issued by the Society decreased, the reason being that a considerable number of newly qualified and not long qualified Solicitors are taking advantage of the opportunities to practise abroad that are now available. Whilst this may cause recruitment problems, particularly in the areas of our coun- try outside Dublin, it must be on the other hand a matter of satisfaction and gratification that our Solicitors are now so highly regarded abroad that they can freely travel to gain experience and hopefully in many cases, to return and give us the fruits of that experience in the future. This leads me to suggest that we may have a rethink in a radical man- ner our recruitment and training policies in this jurisdiction. Whilst it is not the objective of the Law Society to train Solicitors for foreign employment, in the context of 1992 we must appreciate that we are now part of a legal profession (not unified but perhaps heading that way) which serves a market of 320 million people. It may be that we will have to expand our facilities or rationalise them (such as by com- bining the Law Schools of the King's Inns and the Law Society as already proposed by me). Indeed,

"Dancing with the Dinosaurs" was embossed on the invitation to the Summer Charity Ball for the benefit of the Irish Youth Foundation in London run by the Irish Solicitors in London Bar Association on Satur- day, 3rd June in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, Lon- don. Noelle Anne and I were delighted to be invited. Other guests included Niall McCarthy of the Supreme Court and his wife Barbara. The Irish Solicitors in London Bar Association was founded about a year ago to enable Irish Solicitors to lobby on a collective basis for pro- gress on the subject of their re- qualification in the U.K. At present there are over 150 Solicitors in Lon- don who are members of this organisation and we were delighted to represent the " home" profession at their function. Whilst the E.C. Directive on the mutual recognition of higher educa- tion diplomas will come into force on the 4th January 1991, over the last few years multi-lateral negotia- tions have been going on between England and Wales, Scotland, Nor- thern Ireland and ourselves to seek an agreed form of reciprocity of qualification. The U.K. Societies have now agreed the basic terms which should come into force early next year. We will be entitled to the same terms as soon as we enact the necessary legislation to abolish the t wo examinations in the Irish language that are at present a bar to Northern Ireland and overseas lawyers becoming members of our

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