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GAZETTE
JANUARY 1989
From the President . . .
This issue of the Gazette is
devoted to European
matters and to 1992 in
particular.
I am pleased to be able to tell you
that the Annual Conference to be
held in the Hotel Europe in Killarney
between the 4th/7th May will also
be devoted to this topic. John
Hume, M.E.P., Peter Sutherland,
S.C., and Conor McCarthy,
Chairman of Coras Trachtala and of
Ryans Hotels pic, have accepted
invitations to speak. I would like as
many of you as possible to attend
what should be a most interesting
meeting: put the date in your diary
now!
One matter which gives me great
concern is how we can assist the
profession as a whole to deliver to
their clients the necessary expert-
ise in the whole developing field of
community law. It seems to me
that the referral system that has
been set up in recent years in the
Company law, Conveyancing and
Taxation fields has had only limited
success and has not been as
popular or as heavily used as it
should have been. I perceive the
main reason for this to be a fear of
the Solicitor who should be using
the service that he will lose his
client to the bigger firm to which
the referral is made.
This should not happen as the
referral rules are intended to
provide protection so that a firm to
whom a client is referred is not to
act for that client for a period of
years after the referral in any other
matter without the consent of the
referring solicitor. However, it may
be that this is not felt to give
sufficient protection and that we
must find some sanction which will
be seen by the profession to
protect solicitors who use the
referral service. I am not aware that
there actually has been any
poaching of clients, but if there has
been or if it should happen in the
future, then the offending firm
must be dealt with by the Law
Society. Perhaps the publication of
a defaulting firm's name in the
Gazette
plus withdrawal of that
firm's name from the list of those
eligible to receive referrals might be
sufficient sanction.
In the United Kingdom and in
Australia, national federations of
firms are growing up and I believe
we will have to develop linkages
whereby practices which are
operating independently on a local
scale will combine either by linking
to some of the larger practices or
by forming national partnerships to
provide, both an information
service and a delivery of legal
services here and abroad, and in
particular in Brussels.
The profession is already familiar
with the Town Agent concept
which works very effectively and
there is a confidence in that system
throughout the country. Is there
any reason why we cannot arrange
something similar in relation to
referrals?
John Temple Lang in his Paper on
1992 at the recent Conference in
Trinity College suggested that it will
be important to have access to
legal expertise in all the Member
States of the Community and that
it will be important for Irish firms to
become members of the various
Law Clubs that are springing up,
whereby firms in different countries
are joining together pooling their
expertise and making their services
available on a cross-border basis. It
may be that if we can apply the
Town Agency concept to the
referral service, it will be easier to
establish the necessary continental
links.
The English Law Society has
recently decided to permit their
solicitors to go into partnership
with lawyers in other jurisdictions
which points another way forward.
It seems clear that in the not too
distant future there will be large
cross-border international legal
partnerships following the trail
that has been blazed by the
accountancy firms for many years
past.
Those are just a few thoughts on
the way in which I see things
developing and I should be most
interested to have the views of any
of you who would care to write to
me on the subject.
We have recently brought into
force new regulations permitting
the profession to market its
services in a manner appropriate to
the last few years of the 20th
Century. If we develop the con-
fidence to market and to deliver
these services to the public, making
full use of modern technology so
that we deliver such services as
efficiently and as cost effectively
as possible, then I believe
professional skill, integrity and
independence will continue to bring
rewards in the practice of our fine
profession.
•
MAURICE R. CURRAN,
President.
CORRECTION -
DECEMBER GAZETTE
The following is a reprint of the
Profile of the Senior Vice-President
of the Society which appeared in
the
December
issue of the Gazette.
In that issue Mr. Margetson was
described as being "current"
Chairman of a number of com-
mittees of which he was "former"
Chairman. The mistake is regretted.
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT
1988/89
Ernest J. Margetson
Ernest J. Margetson was educated
at the High School and Trinity
College Dublin and was admitted
as a Solicitor in 1951. He is a
partner in the firm of Matheson
Ormsby & Prentice. He was Hon-
orary Secretary of the Dublin
Solicitors Bar Association and also
President of that Association. He
was elected to the Council in 1974
and has served as Chairman of the
Professional Purposes Committee,
Compensation Fund Committee,
Registrar's Committee, and Finance
Committee. He was Junior Vice
President of the Society for the
year 1982/83.
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