'Waste of talent' claim as lawyers work in shops
The Law Society fears solicitors left out of work by the property market crash could end up "wasting their talent" by taking jobs as shop assistants and burger-flippers.
The society said huge numbers had taken up its retraining programme in a bid to avoid taking "inappropriate" work in the recession.
The aim is to direct the hundreds of out-of-work solicitors away from the collapsed property law sector, into other legal fields.
The society's director general Ken Murphy warned that an upsurge in work in areas like litigation and debt would not be able to make up for the losses.
Asked about reports that trained solicitors were applying for work in shops and restaurants, he said: "That may well be occurring, but we are offering in the society a service to help solicitors with career change, so we would hope that that level of waste of talent wouldn't occur."
Mr Murphy said while the perception was that the rate of economic retreat was slowing, there was no sign of "green shoots" for legal work.
But he stressed the profession was fighting back with its efforts to ensure solicitors found work that matched their skills.
Disappeared
"The solicitor's profession has been badly hit. We have regrettably moved from a situation where there was full employment only 18 months ago to a stage where there are hundreds of solicitors out of work.
"The fact is that property-related legal work, both residential and commercial, has almost completely disappeared.
"What is most shocking is the speed and severity of the collapse due to the lack of money in the economy.
"Not all areas have been affected to the same extent -- litigation work and work related in particular to debt has shot up, as has employment law advice. Criminal law is largely unaffected."
The Law Society recently took on a career development advisor to help solicitors in what it calls "career transition".
"We are encouraging people to think beyond traditional private practice because it's impossible to see how all the solicitors who are unemployed will be able to find that kind of work".
aphelan@herald.ie
- Andrew Phelan
