Law jobs becoming scarce, housing market blamed

Vacancies in law are becoming scarce, according to latest reports which point the finger of blame at the housing market.

Vacancies in law are becoming scarce, according to latest reports which point the finger of blame at the housing market.

Suggesting a strong link between the reduction of housing-related demand for solicitors and the fall in legal vacancies, the Law Society of Ireland has spoken about the difficulties in finding legal work.

Speaking to the Times about the problems faced, the Law Society of Ireland director general Ken Murphy said: "The decline in property-related legal work, both commercial and residential, began more than a year ago, but there has been a very sudden and almost complete fall-off fairly recently."

"Many new solicitors got jobs in conveyancing during the property boom, and obviously that's dead and there's no sign of it returning. Many solicitors who had been devoted entirely to conveyancing work will have little or nothing to do at the moment."

A job in law was once seen as a secure income, with little threat of redundancies, but with the housing market as it is at present it is unlikely that the number of redundancies currently seen in the market will reverse soon.

The fall in employees required has been reported to have begun a year ago, with housing related redundancies being increased sharply in the last few months.