The legal profession may be global, but there are still huge differences in pre-qualification training for lawyers in different jurisdictions.
For example, in Ireland it takes a further four years for a university graduate to qualify as a lawyer, whereas in Spain, a fellow European Union country, law graduates can register with the Spanish Lawyers’ General Council and start to practise law without any further training. However, the Spanish system is currently being reformed. A draft Act on access to the legal profession has been published that will require graduates to obtain a new professional qualification certificate.
