Irish Solicitor practicing abroad

pajos55

Further to the thread about conversion exams for foreign-qualified lawyers to practice in Ireland, I am struggling to find much information about the requirements for Irish qualified solicitors to practice abroad. I'm thinking UK, US, Europe, Canada, Australia

Anyone know what the procedure is - does it require conversion exams in each case?

Rhonda9000

Most local Bars / Law Soc equivalents have exemptions for practitioners practicing for various lengths of time. Just google for the local administering authority and requirements in the jurisdiction you would like to know about, there doesn't seem to be any magic website out there that lists all this information.

Amazotheamazing

Rhonda9000 wrote: »

Most local Bars / Law Soc equivalents have exemptions for practitioners practicing for various lengths of time. Just google for the local administering authority and requirements in the jurisdiction you would like to know about, there doesn't seem to be any magic website out there that lists all this information.

With that in mind, why not collect all the info here and make it a sticky?

Qualifying in America requires you to do the bar exam of the state you wish to practice in, afaik.

pajos55

Ok, thanks for the reply. I'll post up whatever I find.

dats_right

England & Walse there is no need to sit QLTT as there is reciprical recognition of qualifications between the two Law Societies. Meaning that once you're on the Roll in Ireland it's just a case of applying to be admitted in England too.

Canada is probably the most difficult common law jurisdiction to re-qualify in for Irish/British lawyers, as the various States' Law Societies require candidates to have Canadian law degrees to be admitted to practice, so you have to start at the beginning again. Or at least that's my understanding of the sitaution.

USA, every state has different requirements for sitting their Bar Exams. Some States allow reasonable access to foreign lawyers, whilst others insist on ABA APPROVED JD's (Juris Doctorate- the degree awarded to american law graduates instead of BCL or LLB) meaning that one has to start at the beginning again. The two most commonly sat by foreign lawyers are the Californian and New York Bar exams. In order to sit the Californian exam it is not necessary to be a law graduate but you must be a qualified lawyer, whereas in New York it doesn't matter if you are a qualified lawyer, but you must have a law degree.

Austrtalia isn't all that difficult to qualify in, like Canada and the US it's a federal country, and each State has it's own rules for admission to practice law. From what I can gather it's necessary to do some classes in subjects like constitutional, etc and pass some exams.

Re the EU, well all those states have civil law systems which are completely different then our common law, but with the EU Directive on Establishment it is relatively easy to cross qualify. Although, I wonder how hard it would be to actually practice without a sound grounding in their systems? And of course, the language barriers.

Amazotheamazing

dats_right wrote: »

England & Walse there is no need to sit QLTT as there is reciprical recognition of qualifications between the two Law Societies. Meaning that once you're on the Roll in Ireland it's just a case of applying to be admitted in England too.

Canada is probably the most difficult common law jurisdiction to re-qualify in for Irish/British lawyers, as the various States' Law Societies require candidates to have Canadian law degrees to be admitted to practice, so you have to start at the beginning again. Or at least that's my understanding of the sitaution.

USA, every state has different requirements for sitting their Bar Exams. Some States allow reasonable access to foreign lawyers, whilst others insist on ABA APPROVED JD's (Juris Doctorate- the degree awarded to american law graduates instead of BCL or LLB) meaning that one has to start at the beginning again. The two most commonly sat by foreign lawyers are the Californian and New York Bar exams. In order to sit the Californian exam it is not necessary to be a law graduate but you must be a qualified lawyer, whereas in New York it doesn't matter if you are a qualified lawyer, but you must have a law degree.

Austrtalia isn't all that difficult to qualify in, like Canada and the US it's a federal country, and each State has it's own rules for admission to practice law. From what I can gather it's necessary to do some classes in subjects like constitutional, etc and pass some exams.

Re the EU, well all those states have civil law systems which are completely different then our common law, but with the EU Directive on Establishment it is relatively easy to cross qualify. Although, I wonder how hard it would be to actually practice without a sound grounding in their systems? And of course, the language barriers.

True, think it's 500 pounds sterling to be admitted to the Roll in the UK?

Australia depends on the Territory but have heard it's down to a fairly straight-forward Constitutional exam for the most part.

It's a topic that will probably become more and more relevant considering the current state of the profession and the numbers qualifying.

Rhonda9000

dats_right wrote: »

Canada is probably the most difficult common law jurisdiction to re-qualify in for Irish/British lawyers, as the various States' Law Societies require candidates to have Canadian law degrees to be admitted to practice, so you have to start at the beginning again. Or at least that's my understanding of the sitaution.

AFAIK British Colombias law soc make foreign lawyers jump through a few procedural hoops to get their (foreign) qualifications certified before they can be admitted there... i.e. not as hopeless as starting again. I don't know how difficult or expensive this is to do. Likewise re. the other Canadian common law states systems.

dats_right

Rhonda9000 wrote: »

AFAIK British Colombias law soc make foreign lawyers jump through a few procedural hoops to get their (foreign) qualifications certified before they can be admitted there... i.e. not as hopeless as starting again. I don't know how difficult or expensive this is to do. Likewise re. the other Canadian common law states systems.

Very interesting- I wasn't aware of this, thanks Rhonda.

kronsington

interesting stuff. im at the opposite end of the scale in that i have yet to secure an apprenticeship ands finding it difficult to get in to any office right now.i hadn't really thought seriously of the idea of qualifying abroad but might have to look into this possibility if things dont get any better here.

Ab roller plus

Anybody got a link to the forms for England and Wales?

Slartibartfast

Just bumping this thread as I'm looking into applying to be admitted in England and just wondering what exactly I would have to do and the costs involved. I can't seem to find any definite information on the necessary steps. I'm fully qualified and on the roll over here. Any help or information would be appreciated.

JacqueFrances

Two questions:

I qualified in Law here to be a solicitor, but never did the training in an office.

I'm in the process of maybe moving to Ireland, if I wanted to practice, can I do so without declaring a drink driving offence in the UK..I have an Irish passport.

Secondly, if I use my irish passport to travel to America to do study, do I have to declare the drink driving offence i.e do offences get transferred to other passports? I would have thought not, but..