Engage with ‘volatile’ world, DG urges trainees
Law Society Director General Mark Garrett has told trainee solicitors that they are entering a professions that is currently “thriving”.
While acknowledging that this was not the case for everybody, he pointed out that solicitor numbers had doubled since 2000, driven by the Irish economy’s rapid growth.
He was speaking yesterday (8 January) at the Law Society’s annual two-day legal-education event for trainee solicitors in Blackhall Place.
Structured as an interactive, conference-style event, the Future of Legal Practice Summit is a module on the PPC ‘Law as Business – Managing a Legal Practice’ course.
‘Engage with outside world’
The director general warned trainees about the danger of the legal profession “sometimes getting wrapped up in our own internal conversations”.
“The people who are really shaping the environment of the legal profession are the business world and the political world,” he stated, calling on solicitors to engage with the outside world and understand its challenges.
Asked about the effect of the Trump administration’s policies on the legal profession worldwide, Garrett said that the world could no longer rely on the certainties that it had for the past 30 or 40 years, and that Trump was just an example of that.
“He's time-limited, but I think some of the ideas are not time-limited. I think we will have a much more volatile world, and we have to plan accordingly,” he stated.
Economy ‘vital’
Garrett said that trainee numbers were at an all-time high, driven by demand.
The director general cited the presence of multinational companies and their increased use of Irish and EU law as a key factor in the growth in demand for solicitors.
Asked about the outlook for the profession for the coming years, he described the economy’s performance as “vital” but “outside our control”.
On the implications of AI for the profession, Garrett referred to reports that professional-services firms were reducing their intake of graduates as a result of the technology, adding that there was no sign of this happening yet in law, though the Law Society would continue to monitor its impact.
Changing culture
The director general told trainees that the in-house sector was becoming increasingly important, and was soon expected to account for 30% of the profession.
“These are options that were not available to people 20 years ago,” he pointed out.
Asked about the challenges of adapting to a profession where the majority was female, Garrett told trainees that no one cohort should be dominant, and that the profession should reflect the society in which it lived.
Referring to a 2021 report that found high levels of bullying in the profession, he said that the Law Society was committed to changing the culture of the law and law firms to reflect the profession’s greater diversity.
The director general pointed out that the leadership of the in-house and public sector was predominantly female, but this was not the case in the large commercial firms.
“The numbers suggest that that should come through in the next number of years. I think we will watch that with interest to see how it evolves,” he told the event.