The economic and other barriers facing aspiring and early career solicitors and barristers in Ireland have been documented in detail for the first time by the Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) as part of its ongoing work to open up pathways to the legal professions and increase diversity.
The LSRA has mapped these direct and indirect barriers and challenges to a total of 32 practical reform initiatives involving key stakeholders in the legal practitioner training and legal services arenas.
While some of the training pathways’ barriers and early careers challenges identified are exclusive to either solicitors or barristers, the LSRA’s Breaking Down Barriers research found a good deal of common ground between both branches of the profession.
Common Entry Barriers
The most significant barriers to legal careers identified in the research are the costs of qualification combined with the length of time it takes post-graduation before a prospective solicitor or barrister can expect to qualify and begin to earn a reasonable salary. Both branches of the profession face challenges in opening access to individuals from more diverse backgrounds because of the significant costs of professional training courses as well as the mechanisms for obtaining and undertaking practical vocational training. For candidates with different needs and responsibilities, particularly those from underprivileged backgrounds, the direct and indirect costs involved may act as a deterrent to entry to the professions, sending them instead into other career pathways.
The LSRA’s research also examined the information available to prospective barristers and solicitors about the various career pathways that may be available and how to get on these pathways. It identified a lack of easily available, full and clear information about in-office training opportunities and selection processes for solicitors and pupillage opportunities for barristers. The research found that the system for qualifying barristers to identify and secure a fellow barrister “master” for their mandatory year of unpaid pupillage at the Law Library was opaque and ad hoc, with scant information available online.
For solicitors, there is considerably more information available on securing in-office training contracts, although this is not all in one place and the pathway to traineeships with large law firms are most visible due to their significant recruitment drives targeting certain undergraduates. While the professional bodies all have information on their websites as well as outreach programmes and initiatives with schools and universities, the LSRA recommends enhanced efforts in this area.
Early Career Challenges
For early career practising solicitors, the research including surveys identified the main challenges as long working hours and lack of workplace flexibility which have an impact on their work-life balance as employees.
Early career barristers practising at the independent referral bar identified quite a different set of early career challenges, reflecting the years that can be spent building up a viable practice as a sole trader and earning an adequate living. It is telling that job security and better remuneration were the key motivations cited by self-employed barristers for taking up employed positions.
Despite these challenges, both junior solicitors and junior barristers showed moderate levels of career satisfaction, with almost six in ten saying that the benefits of qualifying outweigh the challenges.
A further significant finding of the research relates to the perception within the legal professions themselves that they lack diversity and are heavily reliant on prior connections and networks. A mere 14% of solicitors, 23% of barristers, and 28% of law undergraduates surveyed by the LSRA agreed that the professions are diverse (representative of the population). This in itself poses a barrier, in so far as it may discourage candidates from underprivileged and underrepresented backgrounds from even considering careers as legal practitioners.
Last week [31 Oct 2024], the LSRA published its Breaking Down Barriers Implementation Plan which sets out a clear path to achieve the 32 recommended reforms across themes including expanding pathways to qualification, tackling the costs of joining the legal professions, workplace culture and diversity and inclusion.
Given the multi-faceted nature of the entry barriers and early career challenges identified, the plan calls for range of actions to be taken by various stakeholders including the legal professional bodies, employers and the LSRA.
Delivery on the 32 reforms will include regular meetings, discussion, and collaboration between the relevant parties as part of an Implementation Working Group to drive progress, with six monthly reports to the Minister for Justice.
The LSRA very much looks forward to working with all relevant stakeholders with the common goal of building a more inclusive and diverse legal services sector.
ENDS