The Gazette 1989

GAZETTE

pril

1989

From the President . . .

"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

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,

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.

•

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