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GAZEITE
APRIL /MAY 1996
IIMore Integration of Lawyers
Required in Worlds of Business and
Management
ll
-
Sutherland
The speakers at the recent NLaw in the Marketplace
H
seminar were Peter Sutherland,
Chairman, Goldman Sachs (left), John Dunne, Director General, IBEC (second right) and The
Hon. Mr. Justice Dec/an Costello (right), pictured with the President of the Law Society,
Andrew F. Smyth.
"Ireland is an incredibly conservative
society in terms of its definition of roles
including the very restricted role to
which lawyers have been confined in
the worlds of business and
management".
So said the former EU Competition
Policy Commissioner and Director
General of the GAIT,
Peter Sutherland,
who is now Chairman of the finance
house,
Goldman Sachs,
speaking in
Dublin on 17,April 1996 at a Law
Society seminar entitled 'Law in the
Marketplace' .
Lawyers are equipped to recognise,
articulate and explain", he continued.
"Their education and skills qualify them
to
be
major participants in the business
world and in management in Ireland as
they are in other developed economies".
"Why are there so few lawyers on the
boards of major corporations in
Ireland?", he asked. "The attitudes both
of lawyers and of business must change
to achieve this", he concluded. Law
should
be
correctly viewed not as
an esoteric subject for moments of crisis
but as a relevant part of the
day-to-day business of organising a
company's affairs.
Ito
The Director General of IBEC,
John
Dunne,
addressing the same seminar,
said that in his view "lawyers have a
great deal to offer the world of
business in technical areas such as the
interpretation and drafting of legal
documents, in negotiation and
communication which, subject to fine–
tuning and exposure to the business
environment, will be much in
demand". He pointed to clear trends in
many countries towards increasing
integration of legal and broader
business functions.
Mr Dunne pointed out that the board of
directors of IBEC itself contained both a
solicitor and a barrister who had risen
through the management structure and
he believed an opportunity now exists
for the legal profession to move away
from the 'professional' practice of law
to a broader management role in
commercial, industrial and service
activities.
The President of the High Court, Mr
Justice
Dec/an Costello,
gave a thought–
provoking address on how the
interpretation by the courts of two
specific pieces of legislation, namely the
Companies (Amendment) Act 1990 and
the Competition Act 1991, had
profoundly affected aspects in the way
in which business was conducted in
Ireland.
The seminar, which was attended by
close to 100 business leaders, was
organised by the Law Society to
highlight the courses in many areas of
management, including financial,
human resource, quality and strategic
management, which have now been
introduced as part of the training of
solicitors. To assist in promoting this
the President of the Law Society,
Andrew F. Smyth,
announced a
competition for 'In-house Solicitor of
the Year', the rules for which the
Society will publicise shortly.
0
N.OTICE
Lady Solicitors Golf Outing
Woodenhridge, 22 March 1996
Joint Outing with Northern
Ireland Lady Solicitors
Sponsor: Bank of Ireland
1st
Pauline Burke
2nd
Emer Foley
3rd
Mary Ward
Best 36th Handicapper:
Helen Murphy
Over 50 mile Prize:
Aedeen Bradley
37 points
36 points
34 points
30 points
34 points
A match was also played at St.
Margaret's on Saturday, 23 March
1996.
The teams were:
Republic of Ireland Solicitors:
Emer
Foley, Mary Kelly, Diana Jamieson
and Caroline Crowley.
Northern Ireland SoUcitors:
Oonagh McClure, Aedeen Bradley,
~
Rosemary Todd and Kerry Canovan.
The Annual Outing will take place on
13 September 1996 at Woodenbridge.