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Ordinary General Meeting
An Ordinary General Meeting was held in the Old
Ground Hotel, Ennis, Co. Clare, on Saturday, 11 May
1974, at 9.15 a.m. The President took the Chair.
By permission of the meeting, the notice convening
the meeting was taken as read. The Director-General
read the minutes of the last ordinary meeting of the
Society which were duly signed.
Mr. McClancy, President of the Clare Solicitors Bar
Association, welcomed the members of the Society to
Co. Clare and hoped they would enjoy their stay in
Ennis.
On the proposal of Mr. Osborne, seconded by Mr. B.
St. J. Blake, the following members of the Society
were appointed as Scrutineers for the ballot for the
election of the Council for the year 1974/75 : Messrs.
R. J. Branigan, T. Jackson, B. P. McCormack, A. J.
McDonald and R. P. Tierney
ADDRESS BY MR. PETER D. M. PRENTICE,
PRESIDENT
Dear Colleagues,
My purpose this morning is to report progress on
developments in the Society's affairs in the six months
since the Annual Meeting last November. However,
since the occasion is a momentous one, I feel you will
bear with me if I concentrate on what has been the
major consideration of the Director General and the
Council in that period—the reform of our existing
system of legal education and training for persons
seeking to practice as soliictors.
The statutory functions in regard to the education
and training of persons seeking admission to the solici-
tors' profession are performed by the Incorporated Law
Society of Ireland. The Society's functions are derived
partly from the charters of 1852 and 1888 and partly
from the Solicitors Act, 1954.
Brief history of legal education
Historically the Society's functions in regard to legal
education and training date from the passing of the
Attorneys' and Solicitors' (Ireland) Act 1866. Before
1866 all solicitors were required to be members of the
Society of Kings' Inns by virtue of certain resolutions
passed by the Benchers in 1793. At that time there was
no statutory obligation on any professional body to
provide legal education either for barristers or solicitors.
By the statute 7 George II cap. 5 an applicant for
admission as an attorney was obliged to prove by affi-
davit that he had served apprenticeship of five years
and under the statute 13 and 14 George I II cap. 23
"moral examiners" had been appointed by the Courts,
but the examination was perfunctory and there was
no real test of the candidates' legal knowledge of attain-
ments. Between 1793 and 1866 the Council of the
Society, which had received a royal charter in 1852
sought to persuade the Benchers of the day to institute
a system of lectures and examinations and some sort of
system was instituted in 1860 but it was generally re-
garded as unsatisfactory and insufficient. By the Attor-
neys and Solicitors (Ireland) Act, 1866, passed at the
instance of the Society, solicitors were no longer require®
to be members of the King's Inns and the control of th
e
•
legal education and training of attorneys' apprentice
5
was transferred by the Society of the King's Inn to the
Law Society acting with the consent of the judges. The
matter was taken a step further by the Solicitors (I
re
*
land) Act, 1898 which transferred the rule making
functions in regard to legal education, examination
5
and the appointment of lecturers and examiners f
ro111
the Judges to the Society. Finally the Solicitors 'A
ct
1954 laid down the statutory requirements in regard t°
education and training and gave the Society a faim
wide rule-making power to deal with all necessary
matters regarding lectures, examinations and training
within the framework of the Act.
Solicitors 'Act very rigid and restrictive
The present educational requirements for
solicitor
5
are set out in the Solicitors' Acts 1954 and 1960 and the
Regulations made thereunder. They provide for
a
period of apprenticeship which shall be :
(a) Three Years for a person who holds a degree
Bachelor of Arts or degree which in the opinion
0
the Society is equivalent thereto in the NT/v"
University of Dublin or in any of the University
of Ireland, England, Scotland or Wales.
(b) four years for a person who, as a matriculated °
r
non-matriculated student of a prescribed univer-
sity, attends the prescribed lectures and pa
sse5
the prescribed examinations of the Law Faculty f°
r
a period of two collegiate years;
(c) three years for a bona fide clerk with seven y
eaf
'
service to a solicitor;
(d) five years for any other person.
The Act requires the Society to hold :
(1) a preliminary examination;
(2) a final examination which may be divided i
nt
°
two or more parts, now divided into three pad
5,
(3) a first and second Irish examination.
Under the Acts and present regulations, to be eligib^
for apprenticeship, the applicant must have a t t a in
the age of 17 years and have passed the Preliminatf
Examination and the First Irish Examination. ExeiflP'
tion from the Preliminary Examination is given in ca$
e>
where the applicant has matriculated in the app
r
°'
priate subjects.
To be eligible for admission to the Roll of Solicit
01
*'
under existing regulations the apprentice is requir
e
to have passed :
(1) First Law Examination,
(2) Second Law Examination,
(3) Third Law Examination,
(4) Examination in book-keeping,
(5) Second Irish Examination.
Under existing arrangements, the Society requ'
reS
apprentices to attend University lectures in P r o p e l
:
142