Rural legal firms in danger of 'terminal decline'

Fears over Mayo becoming a ‘legal desert’ appear to be coming to fruition after new figures showed that the county welcomed just two trainee solicitors last year.

The Law Society numbers show that 581 trainee solicitors contracts were issued in Ireland last year and 479 were in Dublin. Worryingly, western counties failed to see much of an injection of new blood. There were just two new trainees for Roscommon and Sligo and seven in Co Galway while Co Leitrim saw just a single trainee.

Mayo has already seen a high number of long-established legal practices close in recent years. Local solicitors have already warned of the threat of a ‘legal desert’ in the county and claimed that the proposed ‘flat fee’ legal aid model will exacerbate the situation.

Long-standing Mayo legal firm P O’Connor & Sons celebrated its 125-year anniversary last year. 

“When my grandfather qualified as a solicitor in 1900, there were 231 solicitors in the country," explained senior partner Pat O'Connor. "When my father qualified as a solicitor in 1937, there were 430 solicitors in the country and when I qualified in 1974, there were 1,470 solicitors in Ireland. Today, there are 23,000 solicitors with about 12,500 in private practice."

The Swinford solicitor is a former President of the Law Society of Ireland and a retired coroner. While his own practice has grown and expanded, he understands the difficulties facing many rural solicitors. 

“The number of sole practitioners in the county and the country has dropped very dramatically. The future for the sole practitioner, working by themselves, is pretty bleak for a number of reasons. 

"The practice of law has become much more complicated and diverse and the support needed by a solicitor in practice is not really there for the individual practitioner,” said Mr O’Connor. 

He added that the amount of regulatory requirements is “quite crippling”. 

Mr O’Connor believes demographics and other types of opportunities for young, qualified solicitors is contributing to the lack of trainees coming to practices in rural counties.

“Will rural Ireland become a desert for legal practitioners? I am afraid to say it is in danger of happening,” he stated.

“Overall it is a statistic that the sole practitioner and the small firms in rural Ireland are in decline and unfortunately it is looking like a pretty terminal decline at this stage,” the solicitor added.

The figures follow a recent report from the Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) which warned that a shortage of solicitors is expected in rural areas, where 65% of sole practitioners are over 50 years of age. 

"Legal deserts are emerging in many parts of rural Ireland, as options for legal representation become more limited,” the Law Society warned in its 2026 Budget submission.