The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE

MWH

DECEMBER 1993

Blackhall Place was currently valued

at £17m but that the Society had, over

the years, spent several million on its

renovation. He questioned whether the

Society should move to a building that

would require less maintenance.

Responding, the President of the

Society,

Raymond Monahan

, said that

the profession was very proud of the

building and the purchase of a new

building would cost at least as much.

The Chairman of Finance said that the

staffing of the Society had been adjusted

in line with a report prepared, at the

behest of the Society, by Price Water-

house Consultants in 1991. The Society

had purchased motor vehicles because

this was more cost-effective than paying

travelling allowances or expenses.

The timing of presentation of the

accounts was raised by

Leo Mangan

who said that the accounts were now

out of date since they dealt only with

the year ending at 31 December, 1992

and thus, were presented too late to the

profession to recommend remedial

action. He said that the Society owed

too much. Five years ago the level of

the Society's debt was £136 per

solicitor. As the end of 1992 it was

£681 per solicitor. He believed that

costs on premises, computers and staff

were spiralling out of control.

Mr. Mangan noted that under bye-law

3(2) of the Society's bye-laws the

accounts for the preceding year had to

be prepared no later than 31 March.

He put a proposal to the meeting,

seconded by Michael Nugent, that the

accounts for the year ending 31

December, 1993, would be circulated

to each member of the profession by

mid-April 1994 and that a budget for

1994 should be prepared by the

Finance Committee. The motion was

defeated by 34 notes to 24 votes but

the President of the Society stated that

he would take into account the point

being made by Mr. Mangan and the

Society would consider the possibility

of having the accounts for 1993

prepared in time for presentation to the

half-yearly meeting of the Society.

Noting that the Society's payroll had

increased by 60%, that Council and

committee expenses had increased by

87% and conference and reception

expenses by 61% since 1987,

Terence

- Liston

said he was disturbed by these

trends and that he did not consider that

expenditure was being well managed.

The Chairman of the Finance

Committee assured those present that

the finances of the Society were

constantly under review, that budgets

were prepared and monitored on a

monthly basis and supervised carefully

by the Council. The President assured

members present that their concerns

would be taken on board.

Public Relations

John Coffey

said that public relations

: remained a very sensitive issue for

the Society. He was sad to see such a

| poor turnout to an Annual General

Meeting and he noted that only 2,501

I of a potential 4,130 members had

voted in the recent Council elections;

this was an illustration of a degree of

apathy which had to be addressed. He

said more needed to be done in public

relations terms to present the

solicitors' profession as accessible,

approachable and reasonable and as

defenders of people's rights. He said

that this image had not been

sufficiently strongly portrayed in

recent months. Many vested interest

groups had attacked the legal

profession and he was not satisfied

that the Society had reacted strongly

enough on behalf of the profession.

Pat Igoe

commended the Society on

its recent media coverage and he noted

that many detractors of the profession

had been less vociferous in recent

months.

Michael Nugent

agreed and

said that the Society's public relations

had improved by 100%. Many good

steps had been taken. He suggested

that the Society should seek to obtain

allies on important issues when

appropriate and that the Society's

submissions would be better received

and would get better publicity as a

result. Pat Igoe suggested that the

Society should give further

consideration to getting the message to

second level students about the

difficulty in qualifying as a solicitor at

the present time and the poor prospects

for newly-qualified solicitors.

Advertising

Desmond Moran

said that it was time

for a review of the Advertising Regula-

tions. If trends in advertising, such as

were to be seen in the Golden Pages, on

the back of buses and to be heard on

some radio stations, were permitted to

continue then the profession would

cease to be a profession and would

become merely a trade.

Philip Joyce,

Chairman of the Registrar's Committee,

agreed that the regulations needed

tightening up and that this would be top

of the Committee's agenda for the

coming year.

Compensation Fund

Frank MacGabhann

enquired whether

it was known what the contribution to

the Compensation Fund would be for

the practice year 1994/95. The

President replied that this was

currently being assessed but had not,

as yet, been finalised.

Criminal Law Committee

Mr. MacGabhan said that he would

also like to compliment the Criminal

Law Committee on an excellent year's

work. However, he suggested a Civil

Liberties Committee which would

have a narrower focus. He believed

that this could have a very good PR

benefit for the profession.

Committee reports missing

Jerry McCarthy

questioned why there

was no report of the Staff Retirement

Fund Committee, while

Patricia

McNamara

enquired why a report of

the Standing Committee on Policy and

report of the Solicitors Acts

Committee had not appeared in the

Annual Report. The President pointed

out that the Staff Retirement Fund

Committee was a committee that dealt

with pensions for staff employed by

the Society and this point had already

been dealt with. There was no report

of the Standing Committee on Policy

because he had not convened a policy

committee meeting during his year of

office. Instead, he had established a

Compensation Fund Policy Review

Committee and had initiated a review

of admissions and education policy.

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