For the first time ever, the Gazette looks at the county distribution and gender breakdown of practising solicitors in the State.
Where are you from?
County of birth, county of residence, is an immensely powerful personal identifier for Irish people. The number of PCs in an individual county is also an indicator of the demand for legal services, together with the level of economic activity, in that county.
It may be a little surprising, therefore, that the Gazette has never previously published a table setting out the number of practising certificates on a county-by-county basis. However, these figures are being released for the first time in the March 2018 Gazette.
By the numbers
There were 9,665 solicitors with PCs issued in the State on 31 December 2017. No less than 6,066 of those PCs were issued to solicitors in the city and county of Dublin. Thus, 63% of all the practising solicitors in the State are based in Dublin.
The 855 solicitors in Cork comprise 9% of the State’s total, while Galway is third in size, with 351 PCs.
Gender distribution
Feminisation of the legal profession has been a global trend for decades, but the pace of the trend now has massive momentum. Within the State as a whole, we have 5,001 practising solicitors who are women (52%) and 4,664 who are men (48%). In Dublin, the percentage of PCs issued to women is slightly higher at 53%.
Writing in the Gazette, Law Society Director General Ken Murphy analyses the figures in full.
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