The chairman of the council of the King's Inns, Conor Maguire SC, told CAROL COULTERwhat students can expect from the institution that has been training barristers for 400 years
THERE IS only one way of qualifying as a barrister in Ireland – by obtaining the BL degree from the King’s Inns.
This can be done either by a full-time course or a modular two-year course, suitable for those who are working or living outside Dublin, which involves attendance at lectures for two days every third weekend, along with two intensive weeks throughout the week. Both cost €12,000.
Conor Maguire acknowledges that the fees are considerable, but says they compare with the fees in other comparable institutions where people acquire a professional qualification. The fees are part of the set-up costs of qualifying to establish oneself as self-employed in a profession.
The fees are all ploughed back into the law school. “We are a not- for-profit organisation,” he stresses. Classes are small, with 16 typically in a class. The lecturers are almost all practising barristers.
The professional course stresses the acquisition of skills like advocacy, negotiation and opinion-writing, using mock trials. This differs from the previous system, where young barristers were dependent on their year’s apprenticeship, as “devils”, to obtain hands-on experience.
Aspiring students have to establish they have the necessary legal knowledge to enter the course. While in the past a degree from one of the universities sufficed to gain access to the Inns, and students then learned law over a two-year period, that has changed over recent years.
Now everyone must pass an entrance exam to get on to the course (costing €600) and must qualify to take that entrance exam either by having a degree from a recognised institution (most Irish third-level organisations qualify, the full list is on the website) or by taking the King’s Inns own diploma in legal studies over two years. There is no cap on the numbers allowed in once they reach the required academic standard. At present there are about 200 on the professional course.
Maguire says: “Most of them join the Law Library, but in recent times we have found that an increasing number of the professional course graduates take up positions in European and international legal institutions. Some go back to their positions in the public sector, particularly in ministries such as justice, foreign affairs, health and the Defence Forces, and some have taken up positions as in-house counsel in legal firms or indeed the service industries.”
While the King’s Inns is expecting some decline in numbers this and next year, due to the overall economic situation, he hopes that some of those who need to acquire new skills will turn to the King’s Inns to acquire them.
In addition to training aspiring barristers, the King’s Inns will also be offering lectures in specialised topics to qualified barristers and solicitors, who need to keep up their continuing professional development.
For many outside the profession, the King’s Inns, in its Gandon-built building on Constitution Hill, represents the elitism of the bar; the fact that it is a requirement of all students that they take a fixed number of dinners at the King’s Inns seems symbolic of that.
“In olden days it was a way of learning the trade,” Maguire says. “It became an anachronism when it was a requirement without any interaction between students and barristers. Now there are certain nights when the benchers dine with the students and there is very active involvement from them about what your practice is and what goes on in the profession.”
Anyone interested in what goes on will be able to see it first hand at the King’s Inns open day next Thursday, March 19th, from 6pm, when all the facilities will be shown to visitors, along with a chance to watch a mock court application.