Slaughter and May has funded more lawyers to join the roll of solicitors in the Republic of Ireland, Legal Week understands, as the number of applications from England and Wales continues to rise in the wake of this summer's Brexit vote.

English-qualified lawyers began applying to the Law Society of Ireland ahead of the UK's June referendum on membership of the European Union (EU), amid fears they may find it more difficult to practise EU law in the event of a vote to leave.

According to the Law Society of Ireland, 457 lawyers from England and Wales have now been admitted the roll this year. Ninety of these have also applied for practising certificates. In addition, a further 150 applications are currently being processed.

Slaughters, which had previously funded one lawyer to join the roll, has now funded 10 lawyers to apply, Legal Week understands. Only a handful of these have yet been admitted.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Eversheds make up the bulk of the admissions, with the former's total standing at 114 lawyers and the latter's at around 100.

Clifford Chance applied for all 34 of its London and Brussels competition lawyers to be admitted prior to the Brexit vote. It is not yet clear how many of these have been admitted.

Herbert Smith Freehills has funded 34 lawyers to be admitted this year. Nine have been fully admitted and have acquired practising certificates.

The Irish Law Society said it is currently receiving 10-12 queries a day from England and Wales qualified lawyers. In the first six months of 2016, a recordbreaking 186 lawyers from the UK were admitted – three times more than during the first half of 2015. This means that an additional 271 lawyers have joined since the Brexit vote.

In 2015, the total number of UK solicitors joining the Irish roll was 101. In 2014, that number was 51. There were 15,196 solicitors on the roll in Ireland at the end of 2015.

The process entails a one-off charge of €300 (£237) to be admitted to the roll, as well as an annual cost of roughly €2,000 (£1,614) to qualify as a practising solicitor.

In June, Legal Week revealed a week before the Brexit vote that lawyers at Freshfields, Slaughters, Allen & Overy (A&O) and Hogan Lovells had already applied to join the Irish roll. In July, it emerged that several other top UK firms had joined the rush to register lawyers.

An A&O spokesperson confirmed its position had not changed since then and that "a small number" of its lawyers have applied to join the roll while "a number" are already dual qualified.

Fellow magic circle firm Linklaters declined to comment.

Simmons & Simmons also confirmed its position had not changed and that "a small number" of its lawyers across competition, intellectual property and financial markets have applied.

Of the remaining UK top 15 firms by revenue, DLA Piper, Norton Rose Fulbright, Hogan Lovells, Clyde & Co, Pinsent Masons, Ashurst and CMS did not respond to requests for comment.