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GAZETTE
N E W S
MAY/JUNE 1995
New Apprenticeship Regulations
Í The Solicitors Acts, 1954 to 1994
i
j (Apprenticeship and Education)
(Amendment) Regulation, 1995 (S.I.
No. 102 of 1995) came into operation
on 1 May 1995.
These new Regulations were
necessitated by certain of the
provisions of Part V of the Solicitors
(Amendment) Act, 1994 (which
became effective on 4 November
1994), in particular section 42, which
set out that the Society, may provide
by regulations for the term or terms of
service under indentures of
apprenticeship not to exceed two
years. The provisions of section 42
(which amended section 26 of the
principal Act) came into effect on 4
May 1995.
The Two Year Apprenticeship
A person entering into indentures of
apprenticeship after 1 May 1995 will
have a term of apprenticeship of two
years related directly to the period
of
in-office training which follows the
Society's Professional Course
and the
sitting of the Final Examination -
Second Part (FE-2). Existing
apprentices who would otherwise have
more than two years to run are now
deemed to have no more than two
years to run commencing from 1 May
1995. Existing apprentices with less
than two years to run simply serve out
the remainder of their apprenticeship.
The new Regulations provide that
apprentices who have completed at
least eighteen months of their period
of in-office training will be able to
attend the Society's Advanced Course
on full-time release from their
master's office.
How soon can Existing Apprentices
be Admitted to the Roll of
Solicitors?
Existing apprentices will be entitled to
apply to be admitted to the Roll as
solicitors once they:-
(a) have attended the Professional
Course and the Advanced Course;
and
(b) have passed the Society's
prescribed examinations including
the Second Irish Examination, the
Final Examination Second Part
(FE-2) (taken in conjunction with
the Professional Course) and the
Final Examination - Third Part,
(FE-3); and
(c) have satisfactorily completed a
period of
at least eighteen months
of in-office training
between the
completion by the apprentice of
the Professional Course and the
commencement of attendance of
the Advanced Course.
Execution of indentures and
securing a place on the Professional
Course
A person seeking admission to the
Professional Course must
first
have
registered with the Society his/her
indentures of apprenticeship with a
proposed master, the two year term of
which commences after the person has
completed the Professional Course
and has sat all the required
examinations in the FE-2. In order to
ensure that this requirement does not
'tie up' the available pool of masters,
the new Regulations provide that the
Society, on application, may issue its
consent to a practising solicitor
becoming a master in the future even
though that solicitor may already at
the time of such application have the
statutory maximum number of
apprentices specified in section 47 of
the 1994 Act (i.e., two apprentices
together with one additional
apprentice for every two assistant
solicitors in his/her employment or in
the employment of the firm) if, in the
anticipated order of things, that
solicitor will have no more than the
maximum number of apprentices at
the time the person concerned is
expected to commence the period of
in-office training after completing the
Professional Course and sitting the
FE-2.
Credit for in-office training prior to
Professional Course
The new Regulations do not require a
compulsory period of three months in-
office experience prior to a person
commencing the Professional Course,
but do provide that the Society may
deem a period of in-office training, up
to a maximum period of three months,
by a person either at the office of the
intended master or at the office of
another practising solicitor
prior
to
that person attending on the
Professional Course, to be equivalent
to a period of in-office training served
by that person as an apprentice
after
having duly completed at least
eighteen months of the period of in-
office training. The eighteen months
in-office training period following the
Professional Course is the 'core' of
the apprenticeship.
Procedures and forms
The procedures to be followed by a
prospective apprentice in applying to
the Society for consent to enter into
indentures of apprenticeship remain
substantially the same, but there are
modifications to the prescribed
documentation. A revised set of
application forms including the
substantially amended indenture of
apprenticeship form appendices to the
new Regulations.
The new indenture deed provides for
three 'core' areas of practice in which
the apprentice should receive
instruction and experience
(Conveyancing and Land Law,
Litigation, and Probate and
Administration of Estates) as well
as two other areas of practice. There is
a list of options set out in the
indenture form.
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