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GAZETTE
JULY 1989
Younger Members News
Report of Meeting of Joint Legal Education
Committee at Edinburgh in May, 1989
By Professor Richard Woulfe
The Law Society of Scotland
hosted the 1989 meeting of repre-
sentatives of the Education Com-
mittees of the four Law Societies
within the islands of Ireland and
Britain. The meeting was held on
Friday, 26th May under the chair-
personship of Mrs. Dorothy Dalton,
convenor of the Legal Education
Committee, and Professor Richard
Woulfe, the Director of Education.
Much of the morning session
was given over to the item of
greatest interest to the Society,
namely reciprocity of qualification
within the t wo islands and the E.C.
Directive on Mutual Recognition of
Higher Education Diplomas.
Mr. John Randall reported on the
progress of the University of
Birmingham study into legal educa-
tion and training in all the countries
of the European Community. An
update on the position will be given
by the University at the next
meeting of the working party on
reciprocity of qualifications which
will be held at Redditch on 12th
July, 1989. The University hopes
that the study will be the standard
study used by legal education
authorities throughout Europe.
On reciprocity of qualifications,
the present position is that there is
no reciprocity as between the
Republic of Ireland and any of the
three legal jurisdictions in the
United Kingdom. As between those
jurisdictions, concessions to ease
movements are granted if the
migrant solicitor is already qualified
for three years or longer in his home
jurisdiction. Anyone qualified for
fewer than three years has to take
the full examination cycle and
undergo the same training require-
ments as anyone else seeking to
qualify
de novo
as a solicitor in the
host jurisdiction.
All four Societies have agreed to
do away w i th the three year
qualification requirement in the
home jurisdiction before concess-
ions are granted.
Neither the Law Society of
Northern Ireland nor the Incorpor-
ated Law Society of Ireland plan to
impose an examination on solicitors
migrating to either jurisdiction from
England and Wales. The Training
Committee of the Law Society will
be presented in the autumn wi th a
paper on the examination system
and the Chairman of the Training
Committee Mr. Richard Harvey,
indicated that there would in all
likelihood be a modest examination,
largely concerned with Conveyanc-
ing but also examining the aware-
ness of the candidate of the
differences between his home legal
system and the system in England
and Wales. The Law Society of
Scotland had moved away from its
present 14 hour examination to
propose an exami na t i on in
Conveyancing, Succession and the
Scottish Legal System.
Scotland does not propose to
impose any restriction on practice
once the migrant solicitor has been
admitted to the Roll in Scotland.
The three other Societies have or
contemplate a requirement that the
migrant solicitor would hold a
restricted Practising Certificate for
not more than three and not less
than t wo years after admission in
the host jurisdiction. Professor
Woulfe brought to the notice of the
Committee the difference in the
nature of this restriction between
England and Wales on the one hand
and Northern Ireland on the other.
The only restriction placed on a
newly qualified solicitor in England
and Wales is that he may not set up
as a sole practitioner within three
years after admission. The restrict-
ion in Northern Ireland is that such
a solicitor may not set up in
practice on his own but neither may
he enter into a partnership for a
three year period which period is
reducible to t wo years after a
certain number of Continuing Legal
Education points are accumulated.
England and Wales have a require-
ment of minimum mandatory Con-
tinuing Legal Education for all
solicitors within three years follow-
ing admission.
The others sought from the dele-
gates from the Incorporated Law
Society of Ireland agreement for
their Societies to move ahead wi th
reciprocity before the enactment of
the new Solicitors Bill into law in
the Republic of Ireland. This agree-
ment was confirmed by the t wo
delegates of the Society who
recognised that there was no
prospect of the other Societies
unilaterally easing moving to the
jurisdictions of Irish solicitors in
advance of the repeal of the Irish
language and app r en t i cesh ip
requirements presently imposed on
them by the Republic's Solicitors
Act, 1954. The Society's delegates
thought there was a reasonable
prospect that the repeal of these
requirements would be in force
before the next joint legal education
committee meeting to be hosted by
the Law Society of Northern Ireland
in May 1990.
The t wo Societies in Ireland will
need to discuss problems arising
from qualification in both parts of
the island, particularly in relation to
discipline, the compensation fund
and professional indemnity.
On the latter point, an English
solicitor practising on the border
with Scotland or an English solicitor
practising as such in Paris or Brussels
could get an endorsement on his
professional indemnity policy extend-
ing cover extraterritorially in respect
of his "practice as a solicitor".
The other three Law Societies
have Regulations forbidding - and
it is a disciplinary matter - a sol-
icitor from engaging in practice in
areas in which he is not competent.
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