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GAZETTE
DECEMBER 1990
From the Director General
The English Law Society Conference 1990
"There's a lot Glasgowing on in
1990" is the slogan of this
year's European City of Culture
and on my visit there in mid
October (my first to the city) for
the
English
Law
Society
Conference there was ample
evidence that the slogan was
more than just a catchy phrase.
The city seemed alive and
brimful of energy and activity.
Undoubtedly much has been
done in the past decade to
improve the once drab image of
Glasgow and the city is now
rivalling the Scottish capital,
Edinburgh, as a centre of culture
and the arts. Pride of place goes
to the newly opened Concert
Hall, majestically standing at
the end of the pedestrianised
Sauchiechall Street and this
magnificent building was the
location for the principal
sessions of the Conference.
Presidential Address
The Conference opened on
Thursday, 18th October, with the
keynote address from this year's
President, Tony Holland, who had
chosen the theme
"a
new decade,
a new service". As the title sug-
gested he might do, the President
donned his visionary hat, grabbed
his crystal ball and gave us a
glimpse of how he saw the future
(or at least a part of it) of the legal
profession.
"The days of cosy agreements
to decide on the division of
functions between the branches
(of the profession) are over. 'You
keep out of our patch and we'll
keep out of yours' applied for the
first 90 years of this century, but
it will not do now. It is simply no
longer true that we prepare the
cases and barristers present
them, or that we are the general
practitioners and they are the
specialists. It has not been true
for some years and the Courts
and Legal Services Bill will en-
sure this trend continues."
Here the President was outlining
his view of how solicitors will com-
pete in the future with barristers for
advocacy work now that the
Courts and Legal Services Bill con-
tains a framework which will allow
solicitors, on a basis of merit, to
exercise advocacy rights in the
Superior Courts. There will, of
course, be a
quid pro quo,
in that
any legal obstacles restraining
barristers from providing certain
services at present will also be
removed - though it remains to be
seen whether the Bar Council will
in the future modify its rules to
enable this to happen in practice.
As far as conveyancing was con-
cerned, the President struck an 'up-
beat' note. He was confident that
the profession would successfully
take on the competition that will
come from licensed conveyancers.
A new marketing technique under
the banner
TransAction
had al-
ready been launched, he said, and
this had received a great welcome
from the profession. The idea is
that solicitors can market their own
conveyancing service locally under
a nationally promoted brand name.
New Business Opportunities
Tony Holland sees the Britain of the
future, "with the fewest restrict-
ions, the most entrepreneurial out-
look and with lawyers who
understand both the civil and
common law" as the legal centre
of the world; "the natural place to
study as well as the place to do
business". He believes the opening
up of Eastern Europe offers
tremendous business opportunities
for lawyers with the growth of
trade which that will bring with the
new democracies.
There are those who wiU see this
section of Tony Holland's address
as inspiring stuff from a man who
has clearly given thought to current
issues affecting the profession and
has developed a coherent policy of
a forward-looking nature. Others,
perhaps, will be somewhat less
enthusiastic and may well have
concerns about the direction the
Law Society now seems to be
taking. One way or the other, the
debate will continue and we in
Ireland shall watch it with more
than just a passing interest.
The Sir Humphreys
The President's address was fol-
lowed by a session in which three
serving Secretary Generals of Law
Societies, John Hayes from
England, Kenneth Pritchard from
Scotland and Frederick Heemskerk
from the Netherlands presented
personal views of the role of Law
Societies in a changing profession.
John Hayes sees the task facing
his Society as one of encouraging
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