please help! quick question

lemon3107

hi guys, im thinking of doing the FE1's, but im not sure about some things...if anyone could help me...

1. I have a business with french degree, do I need to do the preliminary exams or will I be exempted?
2. I am romanian, been living in ireland more than 12 years, never did Irish in school (was exempted). I heard there is an irish exam in order to qualify as solicitor, is this true?
3. Is Griffith the only college that will prepare you for the FE1's?

Thanks a mill in advance for ur response!

Dandelion6

1. You can send a copy of your foreign degree (certified by a solicitor) to the Law Society and ask for an exemption to the prelims, which they will probably grant.
2. The Irish requirement has been abolished.
3. No: Independent, Portobello, probably a few others.

dats_right

Dandelion6 wrote: »

1. You can send a copy of your foreign degree (certified by a solicitor) to the Law Society and ask for an exemption to the prelims, which they will probably grant.
2. The Irish requirement has been abolished.
3. No: Independent, Portobello, probably a few others.

Just to clarify some of Dandelion's answers:

1. Subject to it being an honours degree i.e. level 8 then the Law Society probably will give you an exemption from the preliminary exam. Level 7 awards which were formally known as Diplomas but know known as ordinary degrees would not qualify for an exemption.

2. The Irish exam requirement has indeed been abolished, but whilst on the Professional Practice Courses there is a compulsory statutory requirement for everybody to attend and actively participate Legal Practice Irish Course aprox. 10 hrs per course(which in my opinion is a bigger pain than that silly old exam one had to do). T

3. The market is saturated with Fe-1 exam prep providers. The full Law Society list is here

On a seperate note, you should think long and hard about your intended career path, to say things aren't rosey at the moment would be a massive understatement. Look at some of the threads on this forum and from articles contained in recent editions of the Law Society Gazette, which give you some flavour of just how bad things are. Basically unemployment is running at probably over 80% of newly qualifieds at the moment. And with literally hundreds more apprentices to join them this December and April when they qualify you really need to ask yourself is it the right move for you?

lemon3107

thanks a mill for your responses. well i have a level 7 degree which means i would probably have to the preliminary exam ( is this just one exam, is it easy to pass)?
I know that things arent rosey at the moment but with my business degree and experience in retail and administration i just cant find a job, ive been looking for more than 5 months now! :mad:
Thats why i thought maybe its not late to choose another careeer path.
so basically there is no irish exam but i will have to attend irish courses??

dats_right

lemon3107 wrote: »

so basically there is no irish exam but i will have to attend irish courses??

Yep.

You should double check with Law Society regarding your degree as it's at least possible that they may exempt you.

I'm not trying to put you off becoming a solicitor, it's just that if you think the job situation in the general economy is bad, it's completely dire in the legal profession and set to get worse. Many newly and not so newly qualified solicitors have been forced to leave the profession due to lack of prospects. I would think long and hard about embarking on a 3-5 year slog to qualify when at present you are virtually guaranteed to be unemployed again upon qualification (and virtually unemployable!). There are other professions out there which will recover faster than the legal profession, such as accountancy, banking, etc. If I were you I would do a lot of long and hard thinking and an awful lot of research before embarking on such a momentous(and possibly disastrous) career decision.

Dandelion6

dats_right wrote: »

1. Subject to it being an honours degree i.e. level 8 then the Law Society probably will give you an exemption from the preliminary exam. Level 7 awards which were formally known as Diplomas but know known as ordinary degrees would not qualify for an exemption.

2. The Irish exam requirement has indeed been abolished, but whilst on the Professional Practice Courses there is a compulsory statutory requirement for everybody to attend and actively participate Legal Practice Irish Course aprox. 10 hrs per course(which in my opinion is a bigger pain than that silly old exam one had to do).

Thanks for the clarification dats_right. I have no idea what Level 7 or Level 8 means - I just sent them a copy of my degree (ordinary four year BA) and they accepted it...

With regard to the Irish course on the PPC does this mean that someone who didn't go to school here will be thrown into Irish classes with people who did 12 years of it? Is any assistance available for people with no Irish?