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therefore the mark of succes of a trader is the
amount of money lie makes. The purpose of a
profession is the practice of the profession with
integrity and skill. The practitioner is, of course,
entitled to receive a proper monetary reward and
in proper proportion to his skill acquired by long
training but the primary purpose of ones' profess
ion is its practice. Therefore, the accumulation of
wealth is not by any means a mark of success in
a solicitor. Indeed it is remarkable that few soli
citors do accumulate wealth and if they do, it very
seldom comes from their professional activities. I
have heard it said that this view is very oldfashion-
ed,and that the solicitors should endeavour to
become more skillful
in
specialised
fields and
should shed his activity in those fields of service
where, possibly, he does not require a very high de
gree of skill but which are very time consuming and
ill-paid, and that in this way he will be able to
give a more efficient service to the few who are
able to avail of it and command higher remunerat
ion for himself. I find that a narrow and material
istic view of the function of our profession and
one which I cannot accept. It has always been the
proud boast of our profession that nobody was
ever denied our services in a just cause for the
want of money. It has been rather cynically said
that we give our services in such causes in the
hope that they will lead to more remunerative
causes at some future date and solicitors never
really work for nothing. That is not true and
thank God it is not true. You will find on occas
ion you will have to work for nothing without
any hope of ever getting anything for your work
in the future except the satisfaction of knowing
that you have done your duty and played your
part in seeing that justice was done. This reward,
I assure you, exceeds all others of more material
nature.
The second thing I would like to impress upon
you is that you have entered a profession with very
high standards of integrity and one that is held
by the public in very great esteem, notwithstand
ing, what you might be led to believe by what you
hear, see, and read from time to time. There is no
profession to which the public confide their secrets
and their money with such confidence, a confidence
which has been well justified down through the
years and very rarely found misplaced. This con
fidence of the public is the greatest asset which
our profession posseses and every solicitor must be
extremely careful never to do or omit anything
which might in the smallest way damage it.
Lastly, I would like to recommend to my new
colleagues that they would continue their studies,
either individually or by forming or joining small
study groups. This type of activity where two or
three solicitors meet in one another's homes once
a week and follow some programme of joint study
can be of infinite benefit, not only to themselves
but also to their profession and to the public and
the fact that this is done, not for the purpose of
any examination makes
it carefree intellectual
exercise. I hope also that you will take an active
interest in the organisation of the profession by
joining the Incorporated Law Society and your
Local Bar Association and attend the meetings and
other functions of these bodies.
It has been customary for my predecessor to
impress upon young solicitors the desirability of
joining an existing practice as an assistant before
attempting to set up practice on their own. I
regret to say that this becomes even more necessary
every year because the
training of Solicitors'
apprentices is becoming more and more divorced
from practice and office experience and many
solicitors now qualifying have very little office
experience. However, that can be quickly gained
by taking employment in a well established firm.
Except for the Solicitor who intends to join the
Civil Service permently, I would suggest that they
would not take these Civil Service positions be
cause the experience will tend to be narrow and
the office organisation would be unsuitable to
private practice. Do not be afraid to take positions
in practices in remote areas. I think, I can say, as
a country solicitor, that the best experience for the
young solicitor is to be got in a good country
practice where
the whole field of practice
is
covered and
the assistant always gets a wide
scope of personal responsibility.
In conclusion I congratulate you all again and
repeat my wish that you may have long and
successful careers that you will do credit to your
selves, to your profession, to your country and to
the public that you serve.
The following solicitors were presented with
their admission parchments: James S. Baylor,
Mount View, Fermoy, Co. Cork. Henry C. St. J.
Blake, B.A., 39, St. Mary's Road, Ballsbridge,
Dublin, 4. Patrick CafTerky, B.C.L., LL.B., 28,
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