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At your service

What has the Law Society ever done for you? As it turns out – an awful lot! Its superb spread of solicitor supports can help you achieve excellence and wellbeing throughout your legal career. Mark McDermott reports

The Law Society of Ireland provides a vast array of services to solicitors, helping you to achieve excellence and wellbeing throughout your legal career. It does this through its Representation and Member Services, Education, Regulation, and Finance and Operations Departments.

The services provided by these departments have been created to take account of solicitors’ evolving needs and requirements. All of the available facilities can be found at lawsociety.ie/solicitors.

The Law Society’s provision of services falls under three ‘pillars’:

• Information Services,
• Practice Support, and
• Career Support.

Need to succeed

The three pillars were launched in 2023 to answer solicitor requirements throughout their career life-cycle. Each pillar is underpinned by a suite of Law Society services and supports.

Most of these are the envy of other professional bodies – and, in many instances, the Law Society of Ireland is leading the way. To give you a taster of what you can expect to find at lawsociety.ie/solicitors, the Gazette has put together the following non-exhaustive list of services and supports.

Under the ‘Information Services’ pillar, you’ll find the legal and practice information that will help you to succeed, including guidance from the Law Society’s committees, library and information services, and e-newsletters.

There are useful links, too, to the various practice areas, featuring practice and guidance notes, precedents, and news relating to specific areas of law. Submissions and reports of public interest produced by the Law Society’s committees and task forces (listed by year) are also on tap.

In addition, there’s a one-stop-shop for access to the Gazette and the Law Directory, as well as an online store where you can purchase a variety of legal publications and student manuals – as well as all of the information you need on CPD and diploma course electives and events.

Turbocharging tools

Under ‘Practice Support’, the Law Society provides small and medium-sized law firms with the tools they need to turbocharge their practices. There, you’ll find the online Business Hub – this offers valuable resources and information that meet the unique needs of smaller practices.

You can duck into practice support information sessions and dive into the comprehensive archive of audio and video sessions, which provide topical information on:

• Operations and technology, including cyber-security,
• Finance and strategy,
• Human resources,
• Marketing and business development, and
• Legal practice and personal development.

In addition, there’s a slew of valuable practice-support resources and practice-support e-zine articles. These include advice on hiring staff, client-care leaflets, access to the Law Society’s member logo, and others.

Career support

The ‘Career Support’ pillar provides services to solicitors and future solicitors that encourage them to reach their full potential. Law Society Psychological Services delivers tailored psychological wellness support for solicitors and trainees.

Its LegalMind service is available to members and practising-certificate holders. This independent, confidential, low-cost mental-health support is also open to post-PPC trainees. A psychologically well-resourced solicitor enjoys professional success that benefits them, their clients, and their workplaces – without compromising their personal wellbeing.

Law Society Psychological Services partners with the Clanwilliam Institute in providing this independent resource.

Separately, and in partnership with Law Society Skillnet, Law Society Psychological Services also hosts the High-Impact Professional Series of webinars. These and other wellbeing content can be found on the LegalEd Talk Platform.

Also on offer is peer support that helps lawyers develop their ‘psychological muscle’. This allows solicitors to process the impact of their work, and to give and receive support from their peers – giving our members the tools they need to stay at the top of their game.

Every breath you take

Solicitors have many different professional requirements – from pre-qualification, through their professional career, and onwards to retirement.

The Law Society is with you every step of the way, offering a broad range of educational, regulatory, and professional supports during your legal life-cycle. Its aim is to help you to be your best – for your clients, your colleagues, and at home.

Keep an eye out for spotlights on solicitor services that will be showcased across the country at the cluster events that are taking place from May through to December 2024.

The Law Society also plans to discuss its new strategic plan at these cluster events, giving solicitors the chance to provide feedback and share their insights. To find out more about how the Law Society can help you, visit https://www.lawsociety.ie/news/solicitor-services.

Mark McDermott is editor of the Law Society Gazette.

LAW SOCIETY SERVICES STATS 2023

• 25 justice and law reform submissions
• 1,973 solicitors attended the High-Impact Professional Series over 12 months
• 22,078 attendees at 169 courses
• 4,019 queries to the library
• 469 practice notes available