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GAZETTE
MARCH 1992
Opportunity to Woo U.S. Business Renewed
The Law Society is taking a stand in
the Expo at the American Bar
Association meeting in San Francisco
in August. This will be the Society's
second visit to the ABA. In 1991 the
Society had a stand at Atlanta.
Atlanta was one of the less well-
attended ABA meetings - there
were only about 9,000 lawyers
present. Over 15,000 American
lawyers are expected to attend
the meeting and Expo in San
Francisco.
The Expo is a great trade fair with
over 200 stands in the registration
area of the Conference. The
exhibitions included in these are
financial, insurance, publishing,
office equipment, computers, legal
services and other services including
accountants. The Law Society
and the Council of the Bar of
England & Wales had a major stand
at Atlanta.
Our stand was manned both by
representatives of the Society and on
a rota basis by members of a
number of Irish law firms.
The purpose of the venture is to
make American lawyers aware of the
services which can be provided by
Irish lawyers in general and by the
firms manning the stand in
particular. Efforts were concentrated
on persuading US lawyers that Irish
lawyers were capable of handling US
business in the EC.
The following firms were represented
in 1991:-
Beauchamps
Bell Branigan O'Donnell & O'Brien
Ivor Fitzpatrick & Co.
Gerrard Scallan & O'Brien
Gleeson McGrath Baldwin
Gore & Grimes
Hanby Wallace
V P McMullin & Son
Whitney Moore & Keller
The general reaction of the firms
who participated was that it was
a worthwhile venture but one which
needed to be run for several years
before its value could be properly
evaluated. It is pleasing to note
that four of the firms which
participated in Atlanta have already
agreed to participate in San
Francisco.
Those who participated in 1991 were
pleasantly surprised not to be
continually approached only by
those claiming Irish grandmothers
but by people who were interested,
and perhaps surprised, to find Irish
lawyers offering themselves as the
gateway to Europe for their
American colleagues. A very
successful reception for the
guests of the Society and the
participating firms was held in
Atlanta and it is proposed to repeat
this reception in San Francisco and
to arrange a lunch at which a
prominent speaker will be
featured.
The Society has produced brochures
outlining the services which Irish
lawyers can provide to their US
counterparts and these together with
badges and other "give aways" will
be distributed at the stand. As in
1991, the Law Society will have two
representatives at the Expo to man
the stand for periods not booked by
firms, and to assist the members
participating.
Applications are invited from firms
who wish to participate on this
occasion. The contribution required
for each firm is £500 for each hour
on the stand. Modules of 2 hours
will be the norm and applications
will be dealt with on a first come-
first served basis.
Applications should be addressed to
Barbara Cahalane
at The Law
Society.
(See also advertisement on facing
page.)
•
John Buckley
Criminal Law in the
1990s
(Cont'd from page 55)
Reform and codification of Criminal
Law
The final speaker was Mr. Justice
Ronan Keane,
President of the Law
Reform Commission, who spoke on
the issue of law reform. He placed
this issue in the European context.
He pointed out that any reform of
the criminal law should have regard
to the twin requirements of the
European Convention on Human
Rights, namely, that the law be both
easily accessible and formulated with
precision and clarity. He then
detailed the impressive range of
criminal law topics which had been
the subject of reports by the
Commission in recent years.
He stated that in considering reform
we should be open minded and
accept into our law elements of the
Civil Law system which ensure the
more effective attainment of the
objectives we consider desirable.
However, he could see no reason
why this should be a one-way
process. If we are going to have a
Pan-European legal system in the
future, it should so far as possible
preserve the best in both systems.
He particularly commended one
aspect of the Civil Law system in
any consideration of the reform of
the criminal law, namely, the concept
of a code.
He thought that we should not
surrender such valuable aspects of
our criminal law system as the
presumption of innocence and the
right to silence. We should try to
convert the Civil Law countries to
some of the virtues of our system
rather than flirting with some aspects
of their system which in the end may
be destructive of values we cherish.
In the end, we have to test everything
by a fundamental "litmus paper":
our criminal law should have two
objects and two objects alone, the
punishment of the guilty and the
vindication of the innocent.
j
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