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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
broadly based, ideally giving
undergraduates a chance to
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,
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