The Gazette 1996

GAZETTE

APRIL /MAY 1996

V I E W P O I N T Widening the River

Just as a river in spate, swollen by excessive rainfall, will burst its banks and inundate the surrounding country- side, so the oversupplied solicitors' profession must sweep aside the confines of traditional private practice and irrigate new professional territories. unknown. The practice of law already penetrates to substantial degrees 'other worlds' such as those of commerce, industry, financial services, industrial relations, public administration - the worlds of business and management in the broadest sense of these terms. What is or is not legally possible is fundamental to every business decision. Knowledge of the law is essential. Yet, traditionally, a barrier has existed between solicitors on one side of a line and business managers on the other. This demarcation needs to become very much more permeable in the interests of those on both sides. the number of solicitors now qualifying in Ireland is far beyond the absorption capacity of conventional private practice It is both necessary for the profession and desirable in the broader interests of the Irish economy that greatly increased numbers of solicitors should in future pursue careers in business and management, rather than in private legal practice. Both the solicitors' profession and the Irish economy would benefit. It is necessary for the profession because of the sheer numbers of newly-qualified solicitors pouring onto the employment market every year. Richard Branson recently remarked that there are now more lawyers in America than there are people! In Ireland, as in America, the perception of oversupply is strong outside the profession but is even stronger within it. All the indications are that the number of solicitors now qualifying in Ireland is far beyond the absorption capacity of The most likely new professional territories are neither distant nor

will substantially widen the horizons and consequent opportunities of newly-qualified solicitors. Perhaps the greatest success story in the delivery of professional services at national and international level over the last few decades has been the apparently inexorable rise of the accountants. Solicitors should examine and learn from the way in which the accountancy profession has colonised new professional territory in the financial and management worlds, far beyond its original core business of audit work. In the course of this expansion process, accountancy firms have recruited lawyers in very substantial numbers with the result that, measured in terms of numbers of lawyers employed, Price Waterhouse is now said to be the biggest law firm in I Europe! Even the largest and most ' cutting-edge solicitors' firms must sense a growing challenge. For the Law Society to commit itself, as it has done, to assisting solicitors to develop knowledge and skills applicable in the worlds of business and management is a 'win win' strategy. Only a minority of those qualifying will ultimately make their careers as in-house solicitors or in a variety of other capacities in the worlds of business and management. While opportunities and horizons will have been opened for these solicitors, the majority, who will continue to go into private practice, will run their firms and service their clients much more effectively, efficiently and profitably with management training. The solicitors' profession today is like a seething torrent confined in too narrow a channel. It is in the process of bursting its existing banks, not with a view simply to providing a solution to temporary internal pressures, but rather to a controlled, positive and permanent expansion of the river bed. A wider, calmer, river and the more fertile surrounding territory will be in the interests of both. a 'win, win' strategy

conventional private practice. Other outlets must be found to reduce the unemployment and underemployment of these bright, knowledgeable and highly- skilled young professionals. A broader approach is necessary also because the solicitors' profession today is strategically vulnerable through over- reliance on litigation, conveyancing and probate. The failure to use solicitors' knowledge and skills much more widely in business, management and elsewhere in the Irish economy represents the under-utilisation of a well qualified and valuable resource, one which is much more fully utilised in other developed economies. The unfortunate confinement of lawyers to a relatively narrow role in the worlds of business and management in Ireland is criticised for its lack of vision and its conservatism by Peter Sutherland elsewhere in this Gazette. As Peter Sutherland points out, the skills of the lawyer are readily transferable to the field of management. Solicitor skills such as analysis, communication, administration, negotiation, advocacy and drafting are among those which are most valuable in the management world. Indeed, the inter-personal skills developed by solicitors are probably superior to those of any other major profession. The Law Society's Professional Training Course in Blackhall Place now contains management modules covering areas management, marketing, organisational behaviour and other management topics. Although these are provided at an introductory level at present, the Society has decided in principle to double the length of its Professional Course from four and a half months to a nine month 'academic year' to deepen and extend these courses, in addition to adding other, more specialised, legal subjects mainly in the field of business law. While these courses could never constitute a replacement for a good business degree, the combination of both legal and business knowledge such as strategic and financial management, human resource

Ken Murphy

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