The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE

DECEMBER 1993

N E W S

Focus on Apprenticeships

One of the hallmarks of a profession is that it voluntarily undertakes the training of its future members. The approach of the Solicitors profession to this training - apprenticeship - needs to be more focused than it has been in the past. Before taking an apprentice, a practitioner eligible to do so under Section 29 of the Solicitors Act, 1954 should ask himself:- 1. Do I need help in my practice? If so, should I take on and train an apprentice or should I employ a newly qualified solicitor? 2. Do I have the time, the ability and the commitment to train someone who will be my future colleague? 3. If I decide that taking an apprentice is the better option, do I have the physical space, the secretarial assistance, and the back-up service for an apprentice? 4. Am I prepared to pay the apprentice a salary, knowing that the Council of the Incorporated Law Society has recommended an incremental scale, subject to review, for apprentices starting with £95 a week for the period before the apprentice embarks on the Professional Course in the

Society's Law School and going up £115 a week in the period immediately after completion of the Professional Course? 5. Do I have a job - or the reasonable prospect of a job - for the apprentice when s/he qualifies as a solicitor? The last question is probably the most important of all. Given the number of people who have qualified and are unable to find work as solicitors, no service is done to the student by giving that student a 'go nowhere' apprentice- ship. Placement in apprenticeship must be related to anticipated placement in future employment. The practice of some major firms, which offer excellent training, but who subsequently retain a mere fraction of their apprentices as qualified solicitors is one, I suggest, which should be reviewed. A practitioner recently complained about the delay - currently until January 1995 - in securing a place in the Society's Law School for his recently indentured apprentice; in the same breath, he complained that "you up there in Blackhall Place are qualifying too many solicitors". A submit claim forms to the Department as quickly as possible. The Committee understands that in a number of cases, Counsel on making inquiries with the Department about delays in payment, have been advised that claim forms for the particular case were still awaited. Northern Ireland Agents: For all contentious and non-contentious matters. Consultation in Dublin, if required. Contact Norville Connolly, D & E Fisher, Solicitors, 8 Trevor Hill, Newry. Telephone (080693)61616, Fax 67712. Criminal Law Committee

solicitor contemplating taking on an apprentice should be aware that the profession has expanded from 3,251 solicitors in 1983 to 5,220 in 1993. Practitioners should take on an apprentice only for good reason; it is not a good reason if the practitioner is cajoled or arm-twisted by a valuable client into taking that client's son or daughter as an apprentice. A letter received in the Society's Law School from a young qualified solicitor bears repeating:- "Too many recently qualified solicitors are: 1. unemployed and desperate, or 2. working for half nothing, or 3. hanging on after their apprenticeship, without a practising certificate and on apprentice salaries. I feel that direction from the Law Society is needed." The recruitment of an apprentice should be well thought out, and the recruitment process itself thorough. And of course, there must be some reasonable prospect

of a job at the end of the line. Professor Richard Woulfe, Director of Education

Practice Notes - Continued from page 396 Commissioners. Incentive amnesty: Chief Special Collector, 26, Harcourt Street, Dublin 2. 01^4783777. General amnesty: Collector General, 2nd Floor, St. Martin's House, Waterloo Road, Dublin 4. 01-6688666.

C.C.R. Legal Agents

Provide Professional and Comprehensive Service in Castle, Four Courts, Land Registry and all other associated offices Fully Indemnified 23/24 Wellington Quay, Dublin 2. Telephone: 679 4926/7 Fax: 679 4928. Wishing all our clients a very Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year

The Taxation Committee regrets the inconvenience caused to members of the profession by its error. Taxation Committee

•

Legal Aid Fees

The Criminal Law Committee would like to remind all solicitors of the Legal Aid Scheme who have completed cases in which Counsel were involved, to

404