The Law Society has introduced a new Competency Framework for Solicitors in Ireland to inform all aspects of solicitor training and CPD programmes.
Background
The standards of professional performance and the professional values to which we want the legal profession to aspire often take the form of competency frameworks. These are a matrix of standards, values, attitudes and ethics. In 2020, the Law Society of Ireland and Finuas Skillnet initiated a project to devise a new framework of professional competence for solicitors in Ireland.
After a process of extensive consultation with the profession and other stakeholders, the Society’s Education Committee approved the comprehensive Competency Framework for Solicitors in Ireland.
Setting the standard
The Framework sets out day one competence in the practice of solicitors in Ireland, beginning with the overarching threshold definition of Professionalism, which establishes a holistic baseline level of competence that should be achieved by all solicitors at the point of qualification. That definition sets out expectations that clients and other stakeholders can reasonably assume of all Irish solicitors wherever they practice.
It is envisaged that the Competency Framework will be very much a ‘living document’, regularly reviewed and updated to align with changes occurring in the legal professions and in society in Ireland. The upcoming launch of the framework at the Law School Network and Engage event on 19 July 2023 will be first step in an ongoing conversation with the profession to ensure that the Competency Framework fully informs all aspects of training programmes.