Festival format sparks debate on ‘adaptability’
Trainees who have benefited from alternative pathways into the profession have told a workshop at the Law Society’s Well Within the Law Festival that they would not have been able to work as solicitors without the PPC Hybrid scheme.
The workshop, entitled Rethinking Solicitor Training, was one of six held at the festival at Blackhall Place (10 September) ahead of the event’s centrepiece: a live theatre experience focusing on the challenges and pressures affecting the legal profession.
Other workshops focused on e-conveyancing, regulation, and the future of legal services. There was also a discussion on career, practice, and wellbeing, as well as a yoga session.
The theme of the festival was ‘From Resilience to Adaptability’.
'Move through the waves'
Bronagh O’Neill (head of Law Society Psychological Services) told the event that, while resilience was the capacity to “keep going” in the face of pressure, adaptability meant finding ways to “float rather than swim”.
MC Michael Walsh (chair, Byrne Wallace Shields) said that the key question raised by the theme was: “How do we move through the waves?”
The theatre scenes, which showed solicitors facing challenges ranging from AI to work-life balance, were written and directed by award-winning theatre director Donnacadh O’Briain.
Interactive interludes
They were aimed at provoking debate among attendees during interactive interludes between the scenes.
Asked what solicitors could still offer in the future, faced with the challenge from AI, answers from the audience included empathy, compassion, and the early resolution of issues.
“AI tells everyone they’re right; sometimes solicitors have to tell people they’re wrong,” one attendee pointed out.
Asked to come up with one thing that solicitors needed to protect in future, the main answers included collegiality, respect, and “early and honest” communication with clients.
PPC Hybrid 'another avenue'
At the workshop on solicitor training, Darragh Sheehy, who works with Tusla, said that his traineeship would not have existed without the PPC Hybrid scheme, as the organisation could not have made a business case for it.
Ruth Brady (Mangan O'Beirne Solicitors) told the workshop that her firm had not been considering taking anyone on before she went to her managers with the proposal, but added that they now saw, in the PPC Hybrid, another avenue to bring in trainees.
Claire Rafferty told the workshop that she had become a legal secretary in 1996 but, having a family, was unable to go to the Law Society full-time.
Having subsequently qualified as a legal executive, she said that she had been waiting for the Law Society to introduce a hybrid scheme, adding that “without a shadow of doubt”, she would not have been able to train to become a solicitor without it.
Linda Killeen, who was also a legal executive, credited Claire Rafferty with inspiring her to do the PPC Hybrid, adding that it would not have been financially possible otherwise, nor would she have been able to convince her firm to allow her to train full-time while paying the same salary.
Grant for small practices
Also at the workshop, Ian Ryan (Law Society) discussed the organisation’s Small Practice Traineeship Grant, which supports trainees at regional firms to the tune of €25,000.
Seamus Mallon (Mallon Solicitors LLP, Co Monaghan) told the event that his firm might not have taken on its trainee without the grant.
He said that he hoped that the number of grants awarded each year could be increased, suggesting ten, pointing to the rising age profile of practising solicitors in many counties.