The Law Society of Ireland
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The next largest number of training contracts was 36 or 6.2 per cent in Cork. Some counties such as Laois, Kilkenny and Longford saw no new training contracts at all. The third highest figure by county was just eleven in Limerick.

The Legal Services Regulatory Authority has warned of future shortages of solicitors in rural counties as an aging cohort finds 65 per cent of solo practitioners over 50 years of age. The Law Society’s Snapshot is already showing practicing solicitor numbers across rural Ireland low relative to the population, with just 39 solicitors currently practicing in Laois, 40 in Leitrim and 42 in Longford.

The Law Society has taken steps to address this disparity through measures to broaden access to the profession. A hybrid Professional Practice Course has been introduced allowing trainees to train in their local area. The Society has also launched the Small Practice Traineeship Grant to support small and rural practices to provide contracts for trainee solicitors. There have been 32 recipients of this grant since 2020.

However, this may not be enough to draw trainees away from the well-paid commercial firms of Dublin. This is especially the case against the backdrop of the current solicitors’ withdrawal of services in opposition to justice minister O’Callaghan’s ‘one accused, one fee model’ for legal aid, as legal aid work often makes up a large portion of rural practice.

Practitioners have expressed concerns that the new fee model could discourage new solicitors from going into criminal law and the Director of Public Prosecutions has warned that a lack of solicitors with criminal law expertise in rural areas is already forcing defendants to travel to seek representation.

The Snapshot also showed a growing number of solicitors working in-house with 27 per cent working in-house in the private sector or State and public bodies. This reflects “a structural shift away from the traditional dominance of private practice” which may also be having an impact on the recruitment of solicitors into rural practice.