Too many lawyers, says leading academic

Ireland is training too many lawyers and this could be a cause of our litigious society, according to a leading academic.

Because most solicitors and barristers have studied only law, they have very little understanding of the circumstances of their clients, DCU president Prof Ferdinand von Prondzynski will tell a symposium on legal education in TCD later this week.

"We need to look again at what we are intending to achieve in legal education. Most law students go on to practise law, and achieve their qualification through additional courses in the professional bodies, ie the Law Society and the King's Inns."

"This means they spend several years studying law, and in doing so have very little understanding of the circumstances of the clients they represent, whether these are disadvantaged people trying to assert their rights, or corporate entities doing business, or any other clients or users of the legal system."

Ken Murphy, director general of the Law Society, last night rejected the DCU head's comments, saying: "It is people who take legal cases, not lawyers".

Prof von Prondzynski, who was a law professor before taking up his current position, will say law schools may need to look again at the values they teach, including the desirability of legal intervention.

"It would make more sense to follow the US model of encouraging would-be lawyers to study something else first, and then have a postgraduate degree programme which qualifies them for practice in either profession."

Prof von Prondzynski acknowledged that this would take the role of educator away from the professional bodies, but said it could be argued that they are applying restrictive practices to entry to the profession in carrying out this role.

Mr Murphy said it was curious Prof von Prondzynski was recommending a US model of legal training when the US was one of the most litigious societies in the world. It was also curious that he was claiming the professional bodies were restricting entry but also saying there were too many lawyers.

More than 700 students begin studying to become solicitors this autumn, double the number four years ago, and this gave the lie to Prof von Prondzynski's comments, Mr Murphy said.

Prof Ivana Bacik of TCD's law school, who is also due to speak at Friday's seminar, welcomed Prof von Prondzynski's comments as a contribution to lively debate. "Contrary to what he suggests, however, I believe that there is a real value to studying law at undergraduate level."

Many law graduates go on to pursue non-legal careers, she pointed out.

"We should be educating our students in the social and political context of laws, as much as in the laws themselves."