Slight growth in numbers of practising solicitors and barristers amid signs of  increased demand for legal services in post-Covid economic boost

The Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) today publishes its annual report for 2022 on the admission policies of the legal professions. The report, Pathways to the Professions 2022: Annual Report on Admission Policies of the Legal Professions, documents the number of persons admitted to practise as both solicitors and barristers in 2022, based on figures supplied to the Authority by the professional bodies in the sector.

It is the fourth annual report on admissions that the Authority has submitted to the Minister for Justice under section 33(1) of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015. The key findings of the report include:

Solicitor Admissions

  • A total of 11,652 solicitors held practising certificates in Ireland on 31 December 2022. This is an increase of 239 (2%) from 2021, which followed two years of slight decreases from a recent high in 2019 of 11,959 practising certificates. This trend is part of an ongoing correction following the short-lived Brexit-related phenomenon of large international law firms with no establishment in Ireland taking out Irish practising certificates for their solicitors. Since January 2021, the Law Society of Ireland only issues annual practising certificates to solicitors who are practising or intending to practise in Ireland from an establishment based in this jurisdiction.
  • A total of 560 trainee solicitors enrolled on the Law Society of Ireland’s Professional Practice Course (PPC) in 2022. This is the highest intake of PPC trainees in 15 years. There were 469 new trainees undertaking the full-time PPC and 91 trainees new on the PPC Hybrid.
  • A total of 515 solicitors were admitted to the Roll of Solicitors in 2021. The Roll is maintained by the Law Society of Ireland. Admission to the Roll does not legally entitle a solicitor to provide legal services, although it is a pre-requisite for applying to the Law Society for an annual practising certificate to do so. A total of 307 (60%) of solicitors admitted to the Roll were newly qualified in Ireland, and 134 (26%) were England and Wales-qualified.
  • Approximately one in five solicitors worked in the corporate or public “in-house” sector in 2022. This reflects the fact that both commercial and public sector organisations have internal legal functions supporting their business needs. The total number of solicitors holding practising certificates and working in-house in 2022 was 2,605 (22% of the total 11,652 solicitors holding practising certificates).
  • In a trend highlighting the scale of provision of legal services by corporate law firms, more than one in four (28%) of practising solicitors in 2022 worked with a total of twenty employers. These comprised the main large law firms and large public sector bodies, who combined, accounted for a total of 3,211 practising certificates held.
  • The year under review saw the Law Society change the format of the PPC for trainee solicitors. The traditional two-part course, delivered in blocks called PPC I and PPC II, was consolidated into a single block of taught instruction spanning an academic year. This change was a key proposal in a 2018 Law Society submission to the LSRA on its education and training arrangements. It was proposed on the basis that the traditional two-part PPC model was restrictive for training firms.

Barrister Admissions

  • The number of barristers on the Roll of Practising Barristers stood at 2,957 at the end of 2022, an increase of 24 (1%) from 2,933 in 2021. Of the total, 2,173 (73%) were barristers practising as members of the Law Library and 784 (27%) were not members of the Law Library. The LSRA maintains the Roll, a searchable online register of all barristers entitled to provide legal services in the State.
  • A total of 92 new members joined the Law Library at the start of the new legal year in October 2022, down 10 (10%) from 102 in 2021. Of these, 90 began their 12-month pupillage and two were applicants from another jurisdiction who were not required to undergo pupillage.
  • A total of 147 persons were “called to the bar” and admitted to practice by the Chief Justice of Ireland in 2022, allowing them to exercise a full right of audience before all courts. This is down 33 (18%) from 180 in 2021.

Demand for services of solicitors and barristers

  • National skills data did not flag any supply shortages for the combined occupational group of barristers, judges, solicitors and related professionals, despite a slight decrease in the numbers employed in this group. In addition, the Law Society and Bar of Ireland in their submissions to the Authority noted a generally increased demand for the services of both practicing solicitors and barristers in 2022 as Covid-19 related court back-logs generated demand and the economy rebounded.

The Authority report concludes that: “The year saw a waning of the joint impacts of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of number and patterns of admissions to the solicitors and barristers professions in Ireland.”

ENDS

Pathways to the Professions 2022: Annual Report on Admission Policies of the Legal Professions is available to download here.