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Climate for newly-qualified ‘never better’ – AG

Attorney General (AG) Rossa Fanning SC has said that the climate for newly qualified solicitors has never been better.

The AG was speaking at a parchment ceremony in Blackhall Place (6 November), where more than 60 graduates were welcomed into the profession.

He cited a 1944 remark from the then-president of the Law Society Louis O’Dea, who commented that the paucity of work meant that obtaining a qualification as a solicitor might offer no more than “respectable starvation”.

The AG contrasted the 1,400 solicitors practising in 1944 with the 12,000 currently on the Roll of Solicitors – a figure that represented “a statement of confidence” in the legal profession.

‘Rational choice’

He added, however, that choosing to become a solicitor was also a “rational choice”, citing the strong growth in employment and population in Ireland in recent years.

The AG told the ceremony that employment opportunities for solicitors had never been better or more diverse, citing the growth in the in-house sector, and the fact that the Chief State Solicitor’s Office was now the seventh-biggest employer of solicitors in the State.

The AG described practising law in Ireland as “fulfilling” and “enormously varied”, adding that companies such as Google and Facebook, as well as the legal issues that they had thrown up, had not existed when he was studying law in the 1990s.

Law ‘must be dynamic’

“Law is not some monolithic set of rules that is impermeable to change, as its detractors sometimes suggest; on the contrary, the law is, and must be, dynamic. It must always quickly adapt and respond to changes in human behaviour and changes in commercial life,” the AG stated.

He said that the profession that the newly qualified solicitors were joining was “unrecognisably different” from that of their parents’ generation.

The AG concluded by telling the graduates that that there was a common characteristic that united all practitioners in the solicitor profession.

“To be a solicitor is a hallmark of academic excellence, strategic judgment, and personal integrity,” he said.

Quoting another past-president of the Law Society, James W O’Donovan (1972), he said that the solicitors’ profession was the only bulwark between the ordinary citizen and encroachment on that citizen’s rights.

Qualities

President of the High Court Mr Justice David Barniville, who also addressed the ceremony, paid tribute to Law Society President Barry MacCarthy, who was attending the final parchment ceremony of his tenure.

Mr Justice Barniville described Barry MacCarthy’s term as “a stunning success”, adding that his qualities of hard work, wisdom, common sense, calmness, and collegiality had enhanced the work of the committees and projects that they had both been involved in over the past couple of years.

He also praised the president’s “strong commitment” to access to justice and the rule of law.

The High Court President also thanked and recognised Rossa Fanning for promoting and maintaining “an excellent working relationship” with the judiciary during his term as AG in the present Government, and for developing the “landmark” State litigation principles.

Prize-winners

The ceremony also included presentations to prize-winners from Law Society courses in recent years, many of whom are now trainee solicitors.

The prize-winners were:

• Overend Prize-Winner (2022) - Ivan Rakhmanin,
• Constitutional Law Prize (2022 FE1) - Ivan Rakhmanin,
• European Union Law Prize (2022 FE1) - Ivan Rakhmanin,
• Property Law Prize (2022 FE1) – Ivan Rakhmanin,
• Property Law Prize (2021 FE1) – Dana Valino,
• Law of Contract Prize (2022 FE1) – Emma Taheny,
• Criminal Law Prize (2023 FE1) – Caoilinn Devins,
• Company Law Prize (2023 FE1) – Sean Hanley,
• Constitutional Law Prize (2023 FE1) – Adam Cullen,
• Property Law Prize (joint winner) (2023 FE1) – Luke Egan,
• Property Law Prize (joint winner) (2023 FE1) – Chris McMahon,
• Equity Prize (2023 FE1) – Emma Wroblewski,
• PPC I Overend (FE1) - Darran McConnon,
• PPC I Law Society Conveyancing Prize (2019) – Darran McConnon,
• PPC I Law Society Conveyancing Prize (2021) – Cliodhna Hand, and
• Highest Mark in the PPC II Professional Responsibility (PPC II) – Liam Dempsey.