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Admission Ceremony
The President of the Society, Mr. T. V. O'Connor, in
presenting parchments to newly-admitted solicitors on
Thursday, 7 June 1973 in the Library of Solicitors
Buildings, said :
Ladies and Gentlemen,
My first pleasure and privilege today as this year's
President of the Law Society is to congratulate all you
former apprentices on your admission as Solicitors. This
important event in your lives represents the fruits of
years of intense study and anxiety. You have now
reached the goal and end of your student days and are
enjoying the happy reward that comes from your years
of labour. It is a great occasion both for yourselves and
also for your parents and friends and may I on behalf
of the Council of the Law Society and on my own behalf
bid you and them a warm welcome to this ceremony.
This profession of ours despite adverse criticism which
has existed from time immemorial ranks high in public
esteem. One of the reasons for this is no doubt that
the public recognise that our profession has been and
will continue to be perhaps the only bulwark between
the ordinary citizen and the encroachment on that
citizen's rights and liberties by an acquisitive state and
by acquisitive public authorities. It is the duty as well
as the privilege and the right of a lawyer to stand in as
that bulwark and often irrespective of the reward or
fee paid to himself.
Having congratulated and welcomed you young Soli-
citors, it is not out of place, I hope, for me to put a
few considerations before you with a view to guiding
you in your lives and work. Most of you will, shortly,
I presume, be working in offices; and in a sense it is
only then that you will begin to learn the' ordinary
practice and procedure and business administration
which are such important parts of the life of a Solicitor.
Some of you have offices prepared and ready to
receive you and in that respect you are fortunate but
others will be tempted to set up in practice on their
own. Whilst I have known many Solicitors who set out
starting on their own becoming very proficient, on
balance I think it is better for any young Solicitor to
seek some established office, for a while at least, there
to spend some time in acquiring the "know-how" as
regards getting work done, correspondence replied to,
and how to get on with other people whether they be
clients or fellow-members of the staff of the office. I
say this even if the amount of salary offered, for a
start, may be considered by present day standards to
be on the low side.
Many of you will have difficulties from time to time
in regard to ethical standards and in regard to how to
do certain work. In our profession there is a great
"Esprit de Corps" and you would be well advised in
any such case to consult either a senior colleague or
the Secretary or one of the officials in the Incorporated
Law Society's office in order to remove doubts and set
your mind at ease. Always remember that there is no
need to confess ignorance to a client but at the same
time never be above asking for advice from those
competent to give it in any matter of doubt and never
affect to understand when you do not understand
thoroughly.
There is, I know, no need whatever for me to stress
the most important rule of all for any Solicitor (or for
that matter for any professional man) and that is to be
scrupulously exact down to the smallest item in money
matters, etc. in your account of them, and it is impor-
tant always to be straightforward and sincere, and also
I need hardly tell you that you must never fail in an
engagement made and that you must observe rigid
punctuality and on that account please be slow to
promise a client or anyone else unless it is clear that
you can punctually fulfil the appointment. Our pro-
fession is an old and honourable one and amongst you
young Solicitors here today there are some who will in
time perhaps make that profession still more honour-
able, some who will set a headline not only for his
colleagues but for the community at large. I wish each
and all of you young Solicitors the very best of luck,
success and every happiness throughout your lives.
You are aware that the first priority of our Society
since we entered the E.E.C. is to establish the effect of
our membership of that body on our own domestic laws
and we are bound to ensure that we are equipped to
deal with any problem that might be presented by a
client involving community laws or regulations. I sug-
gest that in the near future you might devote some of
your time to browsing amongst the Common Market
Law Reports, which our Society has acquired and
thereby getting to know something about the Com-
munity Laws and Regulations. You must remember
that these Laws and Regulations will in time penetrate
into our national system and it is clear that the Euro-
pean Economic Community Law will become part and
parcel of the stock-in-trade of all lawyers practising
within the community and that includes ourselves, the
lawyers of Ireland.
It may well be that many of you here will in the
course of a few years be found practising in France or
Germany or Italy while your counterparts in those
countries may well be practising here. For that reason
may I suggest that, if you already have not got fluency
in a continental language, you should consider taking
steps at once to making yourself fluent in one of those
languages without too much delay.
In conclusion having congratulated yourselves and
having congratulated your parents who have gone to
such expense, and in some cases difficulty, in putting
you through an arduous professional course, there are
a few things I would recommend to you. You should
consider joining the Incorporated Law Society which
controls our profession and has many facilities to offer.
I also advise you to join the Society of Young Solicitors,
a body which holds seminars, useful and enjoyable, in
different parts of the country, and also to join your
local Bar Association. I would also suggest that you
join the Solicitors Benevolent Association which is a
body of long-standing and which has helped many
Solicitors and their widows and dependents in time of
financial stress, and it operates throughout the 32
counties, and there are so many persons who through
no fault of their own are thrown back on the resources
of the Benevolent Association. There is now formed in
Dublin a body called F.L.A.C. (Free Legal Aid Centres)
and it is a most charitable and worthy body and one
through which Solicitors, particularly in Dublin, can
show that they are concerned for the welfare of their
fellow human beings, and their unselfishness.
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