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GAZETTE
OCTOBER 1994
his Lordship observes that he will not
have his court turned into a theatre!").
An extensive library and state of the
art filing system are also features
which strike a newcomer to the
premises.
According to a senior partner of the
firm,
Patrick Glynn
(currently Senior
Vice-President of the Law Society)
the move to Mount Kennett house was
. prompted by two factors. "In our
former premises we were on five
floors and the ground floor of a
neighbouring office, now we are on
two. It was also fortuitous that the
new premises was just within the
boundary of the designated tax
incentive area of Limerick Docks."
The firm engages in very little
advertising, usually only as a means
of providing support in a programme
for a local venture. Corporate
entertainment is also on a modest
scale in the form of an annual
reception for clients.
Paddy Glynn feels that the main
problems concerning public
perception of the profession is that
"while very few clients have anything
bad to say about their own solicitor
the profession as a whole has a
negative image. The controversy
about fees paid at the Beef Tribunal
does not help, because the public does
not differentiate between the two
branches of the legal profession on an
issue like that." Paddy Glynn says he
would like to see the image of the
profession improve as a boost to the
self-esteem of individual solicitors.
He has a clear view about what the
Law Society should be doing. "We
must continue to work to bring the
profession into the 20th - or at this
stage I should say the 21 st century - by
constantly encouraging solicitors to be
more efficient at running their practices
and to become better communicators
with their clients. Through the work of
the Practice Management Committee
the Law Society has begun to give
more practical support to solicitors, but
we must continue on this path. In my
opinion there must also be increased
emphasis on these issues at the
professional stage of a solicitor's
training."
He believes that solicitors tend to take
an over-optimistic view of the length
of time work will take. The client then
does not understand when delay
occurs. Again he feels that this is a
communications problem. "A solicitor
should endeavour to give a client a
realistic estimate of the time a
transaction is going to take and also to
explain the factors outside the control
of the solicitor which might contribute
to delay."
The increasing dependence of almost
all business activities on computers is
self-evident. Businesses which fail to
exploit the advantages which
developments in technology offer will
soon find themselves seriously
disadvantaged
vis-a-vis
their
competitors. While the use of
computers in business activity is well
established, there is a degree of
uncertainty concerning the legal status
of documents generated by computers
or stored on computers.
The Law Reform Commission in its
working paper on the Rule Against
Hearsay stated that "Legal rules must
be framed to take account of . . .
technological developments".
To date, the circumstances in which
computer printouts are admissible in
evidence have not been clearly defined
by the Irish courts. The evidential
value of original documents which
have not been generated by computers
but have been imaged and are now
stored in electronic form is also
somewhat uncertain. The Technology
Committee of the Incorporated Law
Society of Ireland has organised a
conference to examine the issues
which surround electronic documents,
which will take place on Friday, 18
November 1994, in the Presidents'
Hall at the Law Society, Blackhall
Place, Dublin 7. The Committee has
gathered together some of the leading
experts in this field, both in relation to
the evidential issues which electronic
documentation raises and the practical
aspects of electronic storage.
Overall, says Paddy Glynn, the outlook
for the profession is "promising".
"Solicitors are affected by periods of
recession and boom just like everyone
else. Thankfully, there are encouraging
signs that the economy is picking up
with the property market becoming
more buoyant and a small, but
welcome, downward trend in
unemployment."
•
Barbara
Cahalane
The conference will be chaired by the
Hon Mr Justice
Declan Costello.
It
will be addressed by
Dermot Gleeson
SC who will speak of his experiences
of the use of electronic document
management systems. Professor
Richard Susskind,
consultant to
Masons Solicitors in London, will
address the practical issues
surrounding document management,
both in a legal and non-legal
environment. Professor
Colin Tapper,
editor of
Cross on Evidence
and a
noted computer law commentator,
will discuss the evidential problems
which surround documents generated
by computer and documents stored
electronically.
Don McAleese
of
Matheson Ormsby Prentice,
Solicitors, will discuss the data
protection issues which surround
the electronic storage of documents
and the Data Protection Act, 1988.
There will also be opportunities for
questions and answers during the
seminar. The conference should be of
interest to all solicitors whose clients'
businesses have been touched by the
digital age.
In conjunction with the conference, an
exhibition of computer systems will
be held by leading suppliers to the
legal profession.
Further details may be obtained from
Veronica Donnelly
at the Law Society
or in the current CLE brochure
circulated with this edition of the
Gazette.
•
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