President urges trainees to consider rural practice
Law Society President Rosemarie Loftus has urged trainee solicitors to consider training with firms in rural areas.
She was speaking in a discussion on the future of rural firms and smaller practices at the Future of Legal Practice Summit, the Law Society’s annual two-day legal-education event for trainee solicitors in Blackhall Place.
The president, who is a partner in Ballina-based firm Bourke, Carrigg & Loftus, told trainees that there were now more opportunities in rural areas, which were being depopulated, from a professional point of view, with fewer accountants, engineers, and doctors.
She cited her own town of Ballina, Co Mayo, where there were 23 solicitors, but only five were aged under 55.
The president added that AI may also lead to a fall in the number of traineeships at the bigger firms.
She described the pluses of working in a rural practice as “huge”, adding that she was “thrilled” that she had decided to go back to Mayo to practise.
She added that she hoped to use her presidency to ’shine a light’ on the problems facing smaller practices.
Flexibility
The other panellists – Sonia McEntee (principal, Sonia McEntee Solicitors) and Ursula Cadden (Ursula Cadden Solicitors) – stressed the flexibility that working for smaller or rural firms offered, especially for those with young families.
Cadden, who is based in Co Cavan, said that going out on her own last year after having a baby was “the best decision she ever made”.
She also told the event that she would not survive without doing “every single item that is put in front of me”.
McEntee, however, said that it could be difficult to keep up with the many areas of law that were developing and evolving all the time, and stressed that the expansion of law meant that there were now more opportunities to specialise.
“You can work down the country and be in a small practice and be a specialist,” she stated, especially as advances in technology meant that solicitors did not always have to be physically present in certain cases.
Boundaries
McEntee told trainees that a personal connection with clients was “fundamental” in a smaller practice.
“You'll generate far more business from a returning client or from their word of mouth than you will by advertising,” she stated.
The solicitor warned trainees, however, that boundaries had to be set on what you were willing to do for clients.
“Being able to say ‘no’ is key,” she said.