The Gazette 1995

MAY/JUNE 1995

GAZETTE

N E W S

New Apprenticeship Regulations

(a) have attended the Professional

in-office training after completing the Professional Course and sitting the FE-2.

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. 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 The Two Year Apprenticeship 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:-

Course and the Advanced Course; and

(b) have passed the Society's

Credit for in-office training prior to Professional Course

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

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. 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. Procedures and forms

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