Solicitors are the legal practitioners who deal with a variety of responsibilities related to the law. But here are five facts that may surprise you…

1. There is only one Solicitors qualification in Ireland

While most types of qualifications, such as teaching or nursing, are available in a number of universities and colleges across the country, there is only one Irish Solicitor’s qualification, offered by the Law School in Blackhall Place, in Dublin 7.

Completing this qualification lets you register with the Law Society of Ireland, which is the educational, representative and regulatory body of the solicitors' profession in Ireland.

Of course, some qualify in the UK and they apply to the Law Society for registration. In fact, close to 4,000 UK based solicitors have registered in Ireland since Brexit to allow them access to the EU market. 

To gain entry to the Law School, there are different steps involved depending on your previous qualifications. It might surprise you to learn that:

2. You don’t necessarily need a law degree to be a solicitor!

Most people assume that to be a solicitor, you need complete a law degree after school. But actually, you don’t necessarily need to have any degree to start training to be a solicitor!

If you do not have a degree, you can sit the preliminary examination. To do this, you must be at least 21 years old and it is held once a year, usually in March. The examination consists of 3 papers, including: English, Irish Government and Politics, and General Knowledge. You must pass (min. 50%) all three papers in one sitting, and you are allowed a maximum of three attempts.

You can also apply to be exempt from the preliminary examinations if you are a Law Clerk/Legal Executive with at least five years’ experience and hold a Diploma in Legal Studies (or equivalent qualification) or a Law Clerk with at least ten years’ experience.

Regardless of your background (degree or no degree), to be accepted onto the Law School, you need to pass the entrance examination, referred to as the ‘Final Examination’, or the ‘FE1’.

Read more about the entry routes for solicitors here.

3. Solicitors don’t usually represent clients in court!

This can be confusing, because a solicitor is who you go to for legal advice or representation. The solicitor prepares a case for trial, but they usually refer the client on to a barrister. Why? Because barristers are experts in presenting and arguing your case in court.

4. A century of women in law

The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 allowed women to become lawyers for the first time and the first female solicitor, Mary Dorothea Heron, was admitted as a solicitor in Ireland in 1923. It took until 2014 to reach the point where there are just as many female as male solicitors, and Ireland was most likely the first country in the world to reach that milestone. Now, there are slightly more women than men in the profession (52% in 2019).

5. Solicitors in the house!

There are now more than 20,000 solicitors on the Roll of Solicitors in Ireland, and in-house solicitors in the private and public sectors comprise approximately 17% of practising certificate holders. But what is an in-house solicitor? They provide legal advice in wide range of organisations, such as public and semi-state bodies, regulators, and commercial businesses in sectors such as ICT, pharmaceutical, credit, and financial institutions.

However, private practice solicitors make up the majority of solicitors and they work in large and small practices. The largest firm in Ireland, A&L Goodbody, have over 300 solicitors, but more than 2,000 solicitors firms across the country have five or fewer solicitors.

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