Numbers applying to become Solicitors ?

Delancey

This forum is littered with horror stories of people unable to get Training Contracts and general hard luck stories connected with trying to become a Solicitor - has the numbers of applicants responded in any way to the new and challenging circumstances or is still heavily over-subscribed ?

shaneybaby

Delancey wrote: »

This forum is littered with horror stories of people unable to get Training Contracts and general hard luck stories connected with trying to become a Solicitor - has the numbers of applicants responded in any way to the new and challenging circumstances or is still heavily over-subscribed ?

FE1 figures down by half since 2007, on the law school news recently but don't think it's online.

ResearchWill

They closed the Cork law school because numbers had dropped, I have not heard the numbers, but I would not be supposed with numbers posted by above poster.

MagicSean

Why are positions so hard to come by? I know property and tax law has taken a hit but criminal and family law should be as busy as ever.

nuac

Family law, outsxide the legal aid system, usually depends on a sale of property to fund a settlement.

There is still a demand for all sorts of legal services, b ut there is an inablity to pay.

Really do warn those thinking of doing law to think again.

ResearchWill

MagicSean wrote: »

Why are positions so hard to come by? I know property and tax law has taken a hit but criminal and family law should be as busy as ever.

As pointed out by other poster family law still busy but very hard to get paid. Legal Aid in criminal has had payments cut by excess of 30% and more to come.

shaneybaby

nuac wrote: »

Family law, outsxide the legal aid system, usually depends on a sale of property to fund a settlement.

There is still a demand for all sorts of legal services, b ut there is an inablity to pay.

Really do warn those thinking of doing law to think again.

The bit in bold sums it up, litigation is way busier than five years ago and clients have great cases but they just can't pay, considering the rules involving champerty for a (potential) client without funds to pursue a debtor.

McCrack

There are just over 400 that started PPC this year. I was quite surprised at that. I would have expected 300 or thereabouts.

Delancey

nuac wrote: »

Family law, outsxide the legal aid system, usually depends on a sale of property to fund a settlement.

There is still a demand for all sorts of legal services, b ut there is an inablity to pay.

Really do warn those thinking of doing law to think again.

@ nuac - If a son or daughter of yours was to tell you they wanted to become a Solicitor what would be your advice ?

_JOE_

McCrack wrote: »

There are just over 400 that started PPC this year. I was quite surprised at that. I would have expected 300 or thereabouts.

413 to be exact.

shaneybaby

_JOE_ wrote: »

413 to be exact.

42 in cork last year, over 400 odd in dublin. another 10% knocked off so really.

Jo King

MagicSean wrote: »

Why are positions so hard to come by? I know property and tax law has taken a hit but criminal and family law should be as busy as ever.

Criminal law is a very small part of the work of the solicitors branch of the profession. The vast majority of solicitors firms do little or no criminal work and only a few do it almost exclusively. In the Greater Dublin area with almost a third of the population of the state, on any given day there will be no more than a about 150 solicitors engaged in criminal work. Some of the larger solicitor firms have more solicitors than that, none of them involved in criminal work.

Amazotheamazing

MagicSean wrote: »

Why are positions so hard to come by? I know property and tax law has taken a hit but criminal and family law should be as busy as ever.

Even though we live in an ever more litigious world, it doesn't follow that we ever needed the massive expansion of solicitors we saw in the previous decade. It'd be interesting to compare the numbers of solicitors in 2000 to the numbers in 2010, and also the number of unemployed solicitors in 2000 to the numbers in 2010.

nuac

Delancey wrote: »

@ nuac - If a son or daughter of yours was to tell you they wanted to become a Solicitor what would be your advice ?

Delancy for many years I have been advising all who asked against a career in law

ComfyKnickers

Im a legal executive who always regrets not going on to qualify, I just hadn't the funds as I had the mortgage, family etc by the time I realised I loved law. Think it's perhaps a blessing in disguise for me but if you're young and single (ie are free to take a job anywhere in the country), then there are jobs for solicitors out there.

johnnyskeleton

ComfyKnickers wrote: »

Im a legal executive who always regrets not going on to qualify, I just hadn't the funds as I had the mortgage, family etc by the time I realised I loved law. Think it's perhaps a blessing in disguise for me but if you're young and single (ie are free to take a job anywhere in the country), then there are jobs for solicitors out there.

never too late, no matter how pleasantly fitting ones undergarments are.

qz

nuac wrote: »

Delancy for many years I have been advising all who asked against a career in law

Why though?

Kosseegan

MagicSean wrote: »

Why are positions so hard to come by? I know property and tax law has taken a hit but criminal and family law should be as busy as ever.

Criminal law? Look at the legal diray on courts.ie. There are 4 or 5 trial in the Central Criminal Court on any given day. There are about 10 to 15 trials in the Circuit Criminal Court countrywide on any given day. That is only about 50 or 60 solicitors. COuntrywide there will be District Courts in session dealing with criminal business, but that will be only about 30 to 40 in number at max. Each of those will occupy about 5-10 solicitors on average. There will be appeals in the Court of Criminal Appeal and occassionally in the Supreme Court. That is virtually all the criminal work there is. A conveyance averages about 22 hours. That is for each solicitor. Every house sale virtually takes enough time to occupy a full working week for each solicitor. A solicitor averaging two to three conveyances a wekk will be fully employed. The laerge number of transactions in property during the boom is what largely contributed to the large increase in the number of solicitors. The drop in the number of transactions is what has led to the reduction in the number of persons required in the profession. Apart from debt collection and debt management and some employment work, nothing has replaced the loss arising from the conveyancing work.

nuac

qz wrote: »

Why though?

Qz

The problems in current and forseeable legal practice have been covered in many threads here. Briefly these would be

1. Increasing pressure in on those trying to get the work done . Increasing complexity of work..

2. Increasing overheads

3. increasing regulation.

4.Depressed economy, credit scarcity so that clients cannot pay for services.

5. Increasing competition - mre lawyers qualifying than are needed.

Those are just some comments based on 40+ years in general practice