The Gazette 1990

GAZETTE

' APRIL 1990 Law Society Annual General Meeting

Sideoy side with this develop- ment the President had inaugurated a series of meetings with the uni- versities where the depth of feeling against the Law Society's system was plain and the disadvantages of it pointed out. It became clear that the only possible Examination exemption would be one to apply to all law graduates from recog- nised Universities in Ireland pro- vided they had covered the six core subjects required in the Society's Examination. The Society now had a clear-cut, open and progressive system in which discretion is removed from the Committee and in which com- pensation rules are a thing of the past. The rules are clear, easily applied and enforced and can be readily defended. Standards Control To maintain control over standards the Society had been instrumental in establishing a Council for Legal Education involving representatives from all the faculties of the uni- versities which is to oversee the alignment of subjects within the courses offered in the universities and examined in the Society, and to monitor and align the examination to ensure that a proper standard is maintained. The Society decides on what basis and in what circum- stances its exemptions will apply and in this way controls standards. The Education Committee in- tends inviting a representative from the Ombudsman's Office to attend its meetings and, in particular, the Declaration of Results Meeting. In this way, the Society's system will be above reproach, acceptable to the profession and students alike and can be recommended to both Government and Dail Eireann, particularly with a view to the Solicitors' Bill which may well be published in 1990. In this respect the Society has been in corre- spondence with the Minister for Justice who pointed out that it was inevitable that there would be pressure for changes in the entry requirements when the proposed Solicitors' Bill is introduced in the Oireachtas unless steps are taken before then to meet reasonable demands for reform and he re-

EDUCATION MAJOR TOPIC AT AGM The future of education of entrants to the Profession was a major topic at the Annual General Meeting of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland held at Blackhall Place, Dublin, on November 15th, 1989, under the chairmanship of the President, Mr. Maurice R. Curran. After the formal business had been accepted the President invited comment on the Report of the Council. Mr. Raymond Monahan said that he had been asked for a full debate on the Law School and the general issue of Education. Fundamental decisions, which represented a complete overhaul of the system operated by the Law School since 1978 were needed, said Mr. Monahan, and there was no doubt that the consequences would be felt by the Profession for many years to come. Having reviewed the establish- ment of the Law School and subsequent four High Court decis- ions, he said that since 1986 the Education Committee had been effectively controlled by the Courts and the Committee had no choice but to ease such controls as ex- isted. The Committee could previously justify the results of this system, which year after year gave an approximate 150 students as being sufficient to satisfy the requirements of both the pro- fession, the aspiring students and the public. "Today we have 400 students attempting to gain access into our Law School and pressure on the system is inevitable". This pressure, commencing with the Court cases which proved that the system was vulnerable, was continued through the Press, where the Committee and the Society had been subjected to an unprece- dented campaign. Politicians not only questioned the system as it operated but the right of the Law Society to retain any control over its own education. The Committee had already put into train a detailed reappraisal and the question at issue was the extent of change and the method of dealing with the circumstances existing.

quested that the Society's pro- posals for change be made known before the Solicitors' Bill came before the Dail. To cater for the resultant influx of entrants to the Law School, the Committee has reorganised the professional course so that four separate courses will be com- menced in 1990 with 95 students in each and will run a further three courses in 1991 in similar fashion. It is anticipated that the present influx of 450 students will gradually decrease to between 250 and 270 per annum in future years. This is a 30% increase having regard to the numbers coming into the Law School under the old system in 1988. Mr. Monahan concluded the report of the Education Committee by requesting the co-operation of the profession in the case of con- sultants and tutors in the Law School and in the provision of apprenticeship by Masters through- out the country. Commenting on the Education Committee's report Mr. Quentin Crivon asked if the Society was in dereliction of its duty if it was merely educating solicitors for unemployment. Between 1983 and 1987 young solicitors were forced to emigrate. The heavy competition which obtained today would reduce standards and the profession would become merely a money-making exercise. He asked if the Society had yielded to pressure and if there was any reason as to why the solicitors' profession had been singled out for such treatment. No other profession was under the same pressure. Certainly the Bar was not under pressure. He was very unhappy over the loss of control over standards. Mr. Laurence Shields agreed that the Council of the Society had to yield to pressure. It had, however, shown determination to keep con- trol of the quality of training and still had that under control. A lot of what had been done was un- acceptable to a large number of solicitors, according to Mr. Barry Galvin, who said that the issue of the re-organisation of the training system had been debated at a recent meeting of the Southern

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