Legal Professionals

External Panels Overview

To do any civil legal aid work, you'll need to be enrolled as a solicitor in the State, have adequate professional indemnity and meet tax clearance requirements.

• Before you can take on legally aided clients you'll need to join one or more of our solicitors panels.
• Each panel has terms and conditions which you must accept prior to signing up.
• You should fill out an application form (available by phoning 066 947 1000 or emailing ppunit@legalaidboard.ie) and return it to the Board. 
• Not all of our panels are open to new entrants all the time, but the District Court family law panel, which is our busiest, is always open to new entrants.
• Some panels require you to attend a training programme or otherwise satisfy us that you have experience in the area of law that you want to work to do legal aid work in.
• There may other requirements specific to particular panels.

Panel Membership

Membership of any panel is in the name of the individual solicitor and not the firm. Firms in which more than one solicitor intends to join a panel should send separate application forms in respect of each solicitor, but they can be sent together under the same cover. While each panel is a national one, solicitors are given the opportunity when completing the application form to indicate the counties where they are willing to provide representation.

Completed applications to join any of the Board's panels should be sent to:

Private Practitioner Services,
Legal Aid Board, Quay Street,
Cahirciveen,
Co. Kerry V23 RD36
(DX 166 004 CAHIRCIVEEN)
Email ppunit@legalaidboard.ie