Cork law school closes due to dramatic fall-off in students

THE number of law graduates training as solicitors has dropped by almost 40% in the last four years. Demand for university places on law courses has also fallen.

According to the Law Society Gazette, the newsletter for solicitors in Ireland, the number of people studying to become solicitors has fallen from 672 in 2006 to 414 in 2010, representing a drop of more than 38%.

Publication of the figures comes on foot of a decision by the Council of the Law Society to close its law school in Cork because of a dramatic fall-off in student numbers there.

According to the latest CAO figures, demand for law courses is down by 6% amid concerns about the fall-off in conveyancing work as a result of the decline in construction.

The closure of the Cork Law School, situated in Washington Street, will take place at the end of the academic year in July. The Law Society said it made the decision with regret, accepting the “reluctant recommendation” of the society’s Education Committee that the Cork school should be closed as a Professional Practice Course training centre.

“The decision was necessary for both educational and economic reasons,” said the society. “If the numbers in the Law School in Cork had dropped any further, as was expected, the educational experience of trainees there would have begun to deteriorate. In addition the projections were that losses in the region of €1 million would have resulted over the next three years.”

The school was opened in 2006 to relieve pressure on services in Dublin after those attending the course had grown from 346 in 2001 to 647 in 2005 — an increase of almost 89%. In 2005, a total of 109 trainees were taken on from Munster-based firms and the Cork course was planned on the assumption that in excess of 100 students would attend annually.

However, the decline in numbers nationally resulted in just 44 students embarking on the course in Cork in 2010.

Cost cutting measures at the school, including four staff redundancies, have failed to stem the tide and attempts to increase revenue through room hire, seminars and a diploma course have only been partly successful. “Unfortunately, the revenue brought in by student fees has fallen much more dramatically than anticipated and has resulted in the Cork Professional Practice Course generating a significant loss,” said the Law Society.