Working 9 to 5
Solicitors have been making full use of the suite of Law Society services available to them, recently released data shows.
These services range from career support and advocacy to practical guidance and upskilling opportunities.
The very popular Skillnet cluster events take place ten times over the year, organised in conjunction with bar associations around the country.
The next cluster takes place in Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co Clare on 20 June.
Upskilling
In 2023, there were 22,076 member participants in 169 professional-development courses run by the Law Society to help its members fulfil their upskilling requirements.
In addition, Law Society members can sign up to a free online ESG course commencing on 11 June and access ongoing training and upskilling provided by:
Upcoming CPD topics for members include:
- Probate,
- Successful negotiation,
- Balancing privacy and transparency,
- Legislative drafting processes and policies,
- International arbitration in Ireland,
- GDPR in action, and,
- Practical guide to cyber-security.
On lawsociety.ie, solicitors can browse over 960 Practice Notes and 180 precedents, offering invaluable day-to-day guidance for practitioners.
The recently refurbished Four Courts consultation rooms, run by the Law Society, had 6,814 bookings in 2023.
The rooms also provide invaluable services such as printing, phone-charging and court-stamping.
The High Impact Professional series run by the Law Society has had 1,973 participants over 12 months, while the Women in Leadership programme has had 494 participants since it launched in 2018, with numerous successful pairings of mentors and mentees.
The 2024 leadership programme remains open for applications until 14 June for both mentors and mentees.
Supporting law reform
The Law Society is committed to supporting law reform in Ireland. It made 25 justice and law-reform submissions over the past 12 months, on such vital topics as:
- Enduring Powers of Attorney,
- Family Justice,
- Legal Aid fees,
- Conveyancing and
- Probate.
And the Law Society Library helped solicitors with 4,019 research queries and lent 2,745 books in 2023, providing key legal research supports to members.
Through the library, members can request up to 800 Irish precedents and thousands of UK precedents.
Subject Guides were launched in 2022 and have proven very popular, offering deep-dive resources to help solicitors stay up to date on relevant and evolving practice areas.
The conveyancing subject guide has been viewed over 8,000 times.
A new Law Society Time to Think peer-support programme to enhance leadership capacity saw senior in-house lawyers participate in a 2024 pilot.
Wellbeing supports include the subsidised counselling service LegalMind, while the High Impact Performance series of webinars saw almost 2,000 solicitors sign up over 12 months.
The Law Society provides many services and programmes that are used by thousands of solicitors each year.
Explore what’s available on www.lawsociety.ie/solicitor-services or contact (solicitorservices@lawsociety.ie) the Law Society to see what we can do for you.
Gazette Desk
Gazette.ie is the daily legal news site of the Law Society of Ireland