Practising Certificate (PC) applications

The 2025 PC Application Form is now open.

To request a 2024 PC form, please contact pc@lawsociety.ie. 

A valid Practising Certificate application consists of a properly completed application form together with full payment of fees. Any incorrectly completed application form, or applications, without full payment, or properly completed EFT form, attached, will be considered to be an incomplete application, cannot be processed and will be returned.

Practising Certificates received after 1 February of each year will be dated the date that the Law Society actually receives a properly completed application with full payment.

Commonly used forms

If you are currently out-of-work and want to apply for a Practising Certificate, contact pc@lawsociety.ie for assistance

Other relevant resources and information

Accessing your digital Practising Certificate

After your Practising Certificate application has been processed, you will be able to download your Digital Practising Certificate from your Dashboard. Visit ‘My applications’ and click on the ‘Download Certificate’ button beside your Practising Certificate application.

Each Practising Certificate is the property of the individual solicitor irrespective of the identity of the payor of the fee (e.g. the firm) and therefore only the individual solicitor can access the certificate on their dashboard.

Late applications and backdating

Any applications for Practising Certificates that are received after 1 February will result in the Practising Certificate being dated the date of actual receipt by the Registrar of Solicitors, rather than 1 January. There is no legal power to allow any period of grace under any circumstances whatsoever.

Please note that you cannot provide legal services as a solicitor without a Practising Certificate in force. Therefore, solicitors whose Practising Certificate applications are received after 1 February (and whose Practising Certificates are therefore dated after 1 February) and who have provided legal services before that date, are required to make an application to the President of the High Court to have their Practising Certificates backdated to 1 January.

Further information on backdating Practising Certificates can be obtained by emailing backdate@lawsociety.ie. The Law Society will seek its costs of €350 per Practising Certificate backdated in all cases.

The Regulation of Practice Committee is the regulatory committee of the Law Society that has responsibility for supervising compliance with Practising Certificate requirements. A special meeting of the committee will be held on a date after 1 February to consider any late or unresolved applications for Practising Certificates. At this meeting, any practising solicitors who have not applied by the date of the meeting for a Practising Certificate will be considered for referral to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal and will be informed that the Law Society reserves the right to take proceedings in the High Court seeking an order under section 18 of the Solicitors (Amendment) Act 2002 to prohibit them from practising illegally.

Payment for the PC

Details of payment method options are set out in the Practising Certificate Application Form. In all cases, payment must be accompanied by the solicitor's name and solicitor number.

For all applications for the practice year commencing on 1 January, payment methods are limited to debit / credit card or Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), with physical methods of payment (cheque, bank draft, postal order or cash) not accepted.

The online Practising Certificate Application Form includes an electronic funds transfer (EFT) payment form for bank transfers. Please note that bank details for Practising Certificate fees have changed in November 2024, and ensure that you use the updated bank details (available on the EFT form) for your bank transfer. To learn more about changes to Law Society EFT payments, visit www.lawsociety.ie/payments.

Each EFT payment must have an easily identifiable specific reference, such as the firm or company name, the solicitor’s name, the firm number or the solicitor’s number. General references such as “Law Society” or “Practising Certificate” will not be accepted and may result in a significant delay in the issuing of the Practising Certificate as the Law Society may not be able to identify your specific payment without an easily identifiable specific reference. The payment reference used must be included in the EFT form. Failure to include this information will result in the application form being deemed incomplete, notwithstanding that the fees due may actually have been received by the Law Society.

The Law Society's bank account details are included in the EFT payment form. The Law Society cannot be held responsible for any delay which occurs in processing applications to obtain a Practising Certificate where payment has been forwarded to another Law Society account which does not deal with Practising Certificate/membership fees. You are required to ensure that the monies have been sent to the correct account as listed in the EFT payment form regardless of which account you sent the fees to in previous years.

Returning to practice - Section 61 Application

Returning to practice after three years

If you have not held a Practising Certificate for three years or more prior to the date of application for a Practising Certificate in accordance with section 49(1)(a) of the Solicitors Act 1954 as substituted by section 61 of the Solicitors (Amendment) Act 1994, you need to complete a Section 61 application. Under this, you are required to set out in writing how you kept up to date with legal matters since you were last issued with a Practising Certificate.

If you did not hold a Practising Certificate for the previous practice year

If you did not hold a Practising Certificate for the previous practice year (with the exception of solicitors in the full-time service of the State and solicitors solely engaging in conveyancing services for a non-solicitor employer), and apply for a Practising Certificate in the current practice year, you may be required to make a Section 61 application.

Completing the Section 61 application

The Section 61 application form can be completed online as part of your PC application.

A solicitor who has not held a Practising Certificate for 12 months or more may also be required to make a section 61 application. If you have a query about this process, please contact pc@lawsociety.ie.

Change of practising status

If you held a Practising Certificate in the previous practice year, and do not intend to practise for some or all of the current practice year, including the following situations, you should notify the Law Society in writing with the relevant details before 1 February:

  • you recently ceased to practise, or are intending to cease to practise in the coming year;

  • you will not be practising in the current practice year for any reason, including unemployment, career break, change of career, emigration, sick leave or maternity leave; or

  • you will not be providing legal services, and will therefore not be applying for a Practising Certificate until after 1 February for any reason, including unemployment, career break, sick leave and maternity leave.

You should provide the Law Society with a current correspondence address and email address to allow the Law Society to communicate with you if you are not practising. If there is any change in your practising status during the year, you should immediately notify the Law Society in writing with the relevant information to ensure that your practising status is up to date.

Change of practice

If you have changed firms during the year and have not previously notified the Law Society in writing of this change, you must do so immediately, in accordance with the provisions of section 81 of the Solicitors Act 1954. You should include the date you left your former firm, and the date you joined your new firm, together with the name and address of the new firm as well as your new email address. The same requirement applies for any solicitor who has changed non-solicitor employer.

You can check the current contact information for you held by the Law Society through the 'Find a Solicitor' search facility.

Acknowledgment of applications and receipt for payment

Please note that it is not the Law Society's policy to acknowledge receipt of applications or fee payments.

Once you have submitted the online form and payment, you can view details of your payment and email a copy to yourself under My Orders

For your own or firm records, solicitors now have the option to print a copy of their completed PC application form once it has been submitted online. Please do not send this to the Law Society.

Reference resources

Support

Please ensure you use the latest version of Chrome or Microsoft Edge when completing your PC form.

If you have any issues logging in or accessing the form, please contact webmaster@lawsociety.ie.

For issues relating to your Practising Certificate, email pc@lawsociety.ie.