TWO law graduates have won the right to challenge the system currently in place for entrance to the legal profession in Northern Ireland. Judicial review was granted this week for the Queen’s University graduates to challenge the quota system operated by the Institute of Professional Legal Studies. At present, graduates seeking to become qualified as solicitors or barristers must sit an entrance exam for the institute. Only the top 90 students are admitted and often there can be more than 300 applicants. Angela Ritchie, of Madden and Finucane, said the quota system had been scrapped in England and law graduates here were being barred from the legal profession. “As soon as the 90 places are filled no other graduates can get a place. The result is that there are a large number of law graduates with good honours degrees who are barred entry to the legal profession.”