Many students are under the impression that a law degree is about becoming a barrister or solicitor. In fact, a law degree is an academic rather than a professional qualification, and many law graduates will never work as barristers or solicitors.
Five universities - UCD, TCD, UL, UCC and NUI Galway - offer law degrees. There are also degrees on offer in Letterkenny IT and Waterford IT,as well as in private colleges.
Colm Tobin, UCD's careers and appointments officer, says law graduates are becoming involved in a greater variety of careers.
Postgraduate study is also becoming more common as graduates specialise in a particular area of the law. A survey of UCD's 1997 law graduates shows 40 per cent of graduates went on to research or further academic study while almost a quarter progressed to vocational and professional training and 28 per cent went directly into employment.
Tobin says that "there's also a growing awareness among employers that law graduates make good candidates for management-type positions". As well going into specialised postgraduate courses in law, law graduates also diversify into postgraduate studies such as arts administration and computer science. Accountancy, tax and banking are more traditional areas of employment.
It's possible to study law with other subjects such as languages, business, accountancy, and European studies. These courses are particularly suited to students who would like to make a career beyond the law courts or solicitors' chambers.
In UL, 19 of the 26 law and accounting graduates went directly into employment, with six opting for further study or training and one not available for work or study. Of the college's 1997 graduates in law and European studies 23 went into employment with a similar number going on to further study or training. One graduate was seeking employment and one was not available for work or study.
NUI Galway offers a corporate law degree which involves the study of law, commerce and a foreign language. John Hannon, careers adviser at NUI Galway, says: "There is a decided emphasis on trans-national affairs and senior lawyers from European and American multinational companies are active participants in the programme. Visitors this year, for instance, include the general counsels (legal heads) of Coca-Cola, Gucci and the Body Shop." One of the most attractive, emerging career opportunities is that of working in the legal divisions of companies engaged in international business, and Galway's degree programme is especially suited for that career interest in particular as well as for more traditional careers as solicitors in law firms and at the Irish Bar, adds Hannon.
If you wish to practise as a barrister you must first complete the barrister-at-law course offered by King's Inns. Until now, admission to King's Inns was determined by whether you had a sufficiently good honours law degree from an approved college. However, King's Inns has given notice to students intending to apply for their barrister-at-law degree that, from 2002, entry will be determined by an entrance exam.
The 120 students who hold an approved degree and perform best in the entry exam, which will cover jurisprudence (the theory of law) and the law of evidence as well as criminal, company and constitutional law, will be admitted to the degree programme. This means anyone beginning a law degree this year will have to sit the King's Inns entrance exam the summer after graduating in order to train as a barrister.
If you're not sure yet whether you want to study law, it's possible to take another undergraduate degree and then do King's Inns diploma in legal studies which is open to graduates in degrees other than approved law degrees. Lectures are in the afternoons so many students combine their diploma studies with a day job.
The Law Society is responsible for the training of solicitors. Non-degree-holders must first pass the preliminary exams, but, very people follow this route today. All graduates must sit the Law Society's entrance exams - obviously students with law degrees will be at an advantage here. Everyone who passes the entrance exam is entitled to train as a solicitor but there is a waiting list for the professional training course.
