Law Society of Ireland
Law Society of Ireland building
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| Headquarters | Blackhall Place |
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Membership
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12,000+ |
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Staff
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207 |
| Website | www |
The Law Society of Ireland (in Irish: Dlí-Chumann na hÉireann) is the educational, representative and regulatory body of the solicitors' profession in the Republic of Ireland. As of 2011, the Law Society had over twelve thousand members, all solicitors, a staff of 207 and an annual turnover of €30m.
Law Society of Ireland was established on 24 June 1830 with premises at Inns Quay, Dublin. In November 1830, the committee of the Society submitted a memorial to the benchers as to the ‘necessity and propriety’ of erecting chambers for the use of solicitors with the funds that solicitors had been levied to pay to King’s Inns over the years. The committee requested that the hall and chambers for the use of solicitors should be erected away from the King’s Inns, and apartments in the Four Courts were allotted by the King’s Inns to solicitors in May 1841. However, the adequacy of that accommodation at the Four Courts was to be a bone of contention between the Society and the benchers for 30 years. The first president, Josiah Dunn, was elected in 1842. In accordance with the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877, anyone admitted as solicitors or attorneys were, from then on, to be referred to as solicitors of the Court of Judicature (although the title of attorney lives on in the designation of the chief law officer of the State as the Attorney General).
The Law Society was incorporated by royal charter obtained from Queen Victoria on 5 April 1852 under the name of "the Incorporated Society of Attorneys and Solicitors of Ireland". The charter referred to founding "an institution for facilitating the acquisition of legal knowledge", and for the better and more convenient discharging of professional duties of attorneys and solicitors. The principal events with which the Law Society was concerned on behalf of solicitors in the second half of the 19th century were: · The inauguration of a scheme for the education of apprentices, · The independence of the solicitors’ profession from the King’s Inns, · The achievement of an increasing degree of self-government and recognition of its position as the representative and regulatory body for solicitors in Ireland, culminating in the Solicitors (Ireland) Act 1898.
At the end of the 19th century, the legal functions of the Law Society were substantially increased by the Solicitors (Ireland) Act 1898, which repealed the act of 1866 and transferred control of education and important disciplinary functions from the direct supervision of the judges to that of the Society. In 1888, the constitution of the Council of the Society was changed by supplemental charter, which provided that the Northern Law Society and Southern Law Association would each be entitled to appoint members to the Council. This was further changed in 1960, when provision was made for the appointment to the Council of three members of the Dublin Solicitors’ Bar Association Council. The professions of attorney and solicitor were fused under the Supreme Court of Judicature (Ireland) Act, 1877. As a consequence, the Law Society was granted a supplemental charter, again by Queen Victoria on 14 December 1888 under which the Law Society was styled the "Incorporated Law Society of Ireland". The current statutory basis for the Law Society is set out in the Solicitors Acts 1954 – 2002. In 1994, the Law Society’s name was changed once more, this time the word "Incorporated" (in Irish: "Corpraithe") being omitted from its title.
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