The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE

MAY 1993

The Numbers Game

Entrance examination is not the correct mechanism for control says Education Chairman, Pat O'Connor While it is essential for the public's sake that the numbers entering the profession are limited, the entrance examination is not an appropriate mechanism for doing so, according to the Chairman of the Education Committee, Patrick O'Connor. In an interview with the Gazette, Mr. O'Connor confirmed that the Education Review Committee had reported to the President of the Society and the President would be advising the Council of its recommendations in May. It was his personal view, he said, that the Society's approach must be to determine its policy after admission to the Roll, i.e. what criteria would be applied to a person who had qualified before he would be permitted to practise on his own. For example, a certain amount of post qualification experience might be a requirement, he suggested. Pat O'Connor stated that the profession must expand its view beyond the traditional areas of solicitors' work and start to think of other areas where solicitors could use their skills and qualifications to gain employment, not only by seeking State posts and judicial appointments, but also through supplying wider business services, becoming company secretaries and managers, providing counselling services and so on. "When I qualified in 1974 there were 1,400 solicitors on the Roll, now there are over 5,000. The profession has just about coped with the bulge but with difficulty. We've been lucky, we have benefitted from the EC and the expansion of the economy in the past twenty years has been reflected in the profession, but the time has come now for the profession to look outwards beyond its traditional base into new areas."

"The profession must look outwards beyond its traditional base."

Entrance Examination

Pat O'Connor is a believer in the entrance examination for everyone who wants to enter the Law School at Blackhall Place. "The change in 1989 was well-meant but unfortunate in the extreme. It has been fatal for the profession and fatal for the public; it must be changed and sooner rather than later." He believes that everyone should have to sit FE-1. "It is a much higher standard than the university examinations. The statistics are clear. In the last FE 1 only 135 out of 311 candidates were successful, that's a much higher casualty rate than in university examinations. It is a very stiff examination, candidates need to have a real depth of knowledge." He rejects criticism that sitting the FE - 1 examination can be a back door route for candidates who would not have the ability to obtain a law degree. He is totally opposed to restricting entry to the profession to law graduates only. "Some of the most eminent members of the profession served their time as law clerks. There has always been an alternative route of entry into the profession." He believes the profession benefits from attracting people who have had experience in other jobs, from different backgrounds and at different levels of maturity. "We must have broadly and generally educated people, not just all from the same narrow academic base," says Pat O'Connor. He moves on to an allied theme, namely an almost passionate belief that a university education should be

Pat O'Connor 'generally roam' through a variety of disciplines. A compulsory entrance examination for everyone, would, he argues, free up the choices for law undergraduates. "It would remove the awful snobbery that seems to be developing between the so-called 'pure' law degrees and the hybrids. It is arguable that the hybrids are better in the sense that they achieve the true ideal of a university education in giving exposure to a broad range of ideas and disciplines." The idea would be that after obtaining his degree the graduate would prepare for the entrance examination to the Law School where the emphasis is on the detailed specialist training required for practising in a profession. Apprenticeship Pat O'Connor believes that the current system of apprenticeship has served the profession well. "Of course there has been some fine tuning and modifications over the past 1 0 - 1 5 years. Nowadays the vast majority of masters take their responsibilities seriously. The education department has developed closer liaison with masters and apprentices and engages in much closer monitoring." He admits,

broadly based, ideally giving undergraduates a chance to

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