THERE ARE about 800 solicitors currently unemployed, according to the director general of the Law Society, and the numbers seeking training as solicitors has fallen by a third in two years.
Ken Murphy outlined some key changes in the profession in the past year in the society’s 2008/2009 annual report and accounts, just published.
He also drew attention to the growth in the regulatory work done by the society. In 2008 its regulatory arm brought 86 applications, for disciplinary action against solicitors, to the High Court, resulting in 206 orders. This compared with 17 applications and 92 orders in 2007.
There has been “an avalanche of negligence claims” against solicitors for their failure to comply with undertakings given in commercial conveyancing transactions, he said. This has put pressure on professional indemnity insurance.
Referring to unemployment among solicitors, he pointed out that this resulted in the society recruiting a career-development adviser.
Keith O’Malley has been working since earlier this year to help unemployed solicitors find employment either within the profession or in other careers.
Turning to the intake of trainees, he said that in September 2007, 671 trainees started in the society’s law school. In September 2009 this had fallen to 452, a reduction of 33 per cent in two years.
This meant a substantial reduction in fee income for the law school, and a number of cost-cutting measures were taken, including making nine staff in the school redundant.
John Eliot, director of regulation in the Law Society, said that changes had been introduced as a result of the Lynn and Byrne cases. These included restricting solicitors’ undertakings to mortgagees where the solicitor or a connected person had an interest; the Complaints and Client Relations Committee now has a lay majority; and new powers to award compensation to clients for inadequate professional service.
According to statistics published in the report, over a third of all solicitors are in their 30s, with 22 per cent between 40 and 50. Eighteen per cent are between 50 and 60. Eight per cent, or 699, are under 30.
Almost half of all solicitors (48 per cent) are women, and almost half (45 per cent) work as sole practitioners, with another 25 per cent working in two-person law firms. Only 1 per cent of solicitors work in firms employing 20 or more solicitors, and only 3 per cent in firms employing more than 10.