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GAZETTE
N E WS
APRIL/MAY 1996
Marathon Meeting Votes, Votes, Votes
for Change, Change, Change
A vote in a hundred - practically every recommended change in the Society was accepted by
the 220 members who attended the meeting.
One of the most important meetings in
the 140-year history of the Law
Society also proved to be one of the
longest. Almost six hours was spent
in debate at the Special General
Meeting in Blackhall Place on
7 March, 1996, before the process
of considering and voting on each
of the 106 recommendations of the
Review Working Group was
completed.
The great majority of recommendations
were accepted without the need for much
debate. Some of the recommendations,
however, were highly controversial and a
few were voted through with relatively
small margins. One recommendation,
relating to Council meeting attendance
by former presidents, in fact produced a
tied vote. This required the President,
Andrew F. Smyth, to exercise his
Chairman's casting vote.
Of the 106 recommendations, no less
than 96 were adopted by the meeting
without any amendment. The majority
of the others were approved with
amendments supported by the Review
Working Group.
In essence, therefore, practically
every recommended change in the
Society was accepted by the 220
members, from 18 counties, who
attended the meeting, the great majority
of whom were still present at the very
end when the most controversial and
tar-reaching proposals were put and
voted upon.
Throughout the evening the meeting's
appetite for change and its approval of
the Review Working Group's
blueprint for the future was
unfaltering and overwhelming.
Background
The seven members of the Review
Working Group were appointed by the
then President of the Law Society,
Patrick A. Glynn,
following the
passing at the Society's November
1994 Annual General Meeting of a
resolution calling for an inquiry to
examine the structure and
administration of the Society with a
view to better serving the solicitors'
profession in modern Ireland. That
Annual General Meeting had revealed a
serious level of members'
dissatisfaction with the Society. One of
the prime movers in bringing forward
the resolution to that stormy Annual
General Meeting was
Leo Mangan,
who
was subsequently appointed to the
Review Working Group.
The Review Working Group was
designed to represent a balance
between, on the one hand, members
who had extensive experience as
Council members of the Society and
who could therefore contribute
knowledge of how things actually
worked and, on the other hand,
members who had never served on the
Council and who therefore could
contribute the 'outsider' perspective of
ordinary members of the Society. It
symbolically bridged the gap perceived
by some to exist between ordinary
members and the Council.
The Review Working Group spent
some 70 hours in meetings over a
period of nine months and on 6
November, 1995, produced its
detailed written Report, with
106 specific recommendations,
a copy of which was sent to every
solicitor.
Members of the Review
Working Group
Donal G. Binchy,
O'Brien &
Binchy, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary
(Chairman)
Leo Mangan,
Mangan O'Beirne,
Dublin
Daire Murphy,
Abercorn, Dublin
Ken Murphy,
Director General.
Law Society
Pat O'Connor,
P. O'Connor & Son,
Swinford, Co. Mayo
John Shaw,
J.A. Shaw & Co.,
Mullingar, Co. Westmeath
Liam Young,
Young & Co. Dublin
Mary Keane,
Policy Development
Executive, Law Society (Secretary
to the Group)
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