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GAZETTE
SEPTEMBER 1990
J A M E S J. I VERS
Director General of the Law Society
1 9 7 3 - 1 9 9 0 -
I N R E T R O S P E CT
The last day of October 1990 brings with it the retirement of James
J. I vers, universally known as J im, from the office of Director
General of the Law Society. J im is the first holder of the office of
Director General, which he holds in addition to his statutory post
as Secretary.
It is difficult to believe that in the
last hundred years the Society has
had but three chief executives.
There are still many solicitors in
practice who qualified during the
period that William George Wakely
was Secretary, a period which
stretched from 1888 to 1942. W. G.
Wakely was succeeded by Eric A.
Plunkett who served as Secretary
from 1943 to 1973. Jim took up his
appointment on 1st October 1973,
having previously served as Chief
Executive Officer of the North
Western Health Board, and now
retires 17 years later. Those 17
years have been a time of radical
change across a wide spectrum
and our profession owes a
considerable debt of gratitude to
Jim for his 'helmsmanship' during
all of that time.
A solicitor qualifying today would
have difficulty in recognising the
Society as it was in the early
1970s. The administrative offices,
the library and the council chamber
were all located in Solicitors'
Buildings in the Four Courts; the
law school was very much a part-
time affair with lectures being held
anywhere and everywhere, even
under psychadelic lights in ugly
club premises; and the Council of
the Society, concerned about the
cost of its refurbishment, was
giving serious consideration to the
disposal of the Blackhall Place
premises, which had been pur-
chased in a run down condition in
1968. Also, accountant certificate
control was extremely limited but,
as a corollory, the cost of the
annual practising certificate,
including the Compensation Fund
contribution, was much lower than
it is today.
EDUCAT I ON
Jim's appointment coincided with
the emergence of pressures within
the membership, notably through
the Society of Young Solicitors, for
improvement in the training system
for intending solicitors. Seen as a
priority task, the Education Com-
mittee spared no effort to bring
about change within the constraints
of existing legislation — the
Solicitors Acts 1954/60 - still with
us, but hopefully soon to be
amended. The Committee was
fortunate to become aware of the
activities of Kevin O'Leary in
Canberra, Australia, who was
pioneering a unique system of
hands-on teaching of trainee
lawyers by professional peers.
Harry Sexton, Solicitor, then an
apprentice, went to Canberra on
behalf of the Society to experience
the system and to report back. The
ultimate result, following a visit of
Kevin O'Leary to Dublin, was the
adoption of the same approach of
using the expertise of our own legal
practitioners as the teaching
medium. The 1975 Education
Regulations were drawn-up and
solicitor, Dick Woulfe, and law
graduate and teacher, Larry
Sweeney, were recruited to head-
up the new Law School. Partici-
pants in the first course under the
new system entered Blackhall Place
in 1978. The new system was
designed to cater for an optimum
number of 75 apprentices each half
year, or 150 in a full year. At that
time the number qualifying each
year under the 'old system'
averaged 120. The transition
between the 'old system' and the
'new system' continued for some
years, resulting during that period
in the numbers qualifying per year
reaching in excess of 300.
After the initial transition period,
the Final Examination — First Part
(F.E.I.) became the sole criterion for
entry to the Law School and that
remained the position until 1989.
Since 1989, Irish law graduates
have been exempt from the F.E.I. —
one transitional consequence being
that a greater number of students
then would be the optimum from
the educational standpoint are now
attending each Law School course
and that between 1990 and 1992,
more than 700 new solicitors are
likely to qualify. However, from
January 1991, with the coming into
effect of the EC Directive on the
Mutual Recognition of Foreign
Diplomas, Irish solicitors, already
working as legal executives in
London and elsewhere in the U.K.
in large numbers will be able to fully
and quickly qualify as solicitors in
the U.K. and elsewhere in the E.C.
During the 1980s Continuing
Legal Education (CLE) for qualified
solicitors grew as a spin-off from
the activities of the Law School.
The importance of CLE is now
obvious to the entire profession and
its effectiveness lies in the whole
hearted participation, as consult-
ants, of practitioners withexpertise
generously imparting that expertise
to their colleagues.
BLACKHALL PLACE
The need to provide adequate
accommodation for the Law School
ultimately led to the Council having
to face the financial reality of the
refurbishment of the Blackhall
Place premises. In addition to Jim,
the names of Peter Prentice and
Moya Quinlan will be particularly
linked with this courageous init-
iative to transform a more than 200
year old historical building into both
the best of what it had been and
the functional modern headquarters
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