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Disciplinary Committee
The President of the High Court has appointed
Thomas V. O'Connor to be a member of the
Disciplinary Committee.
9th January 1969: The President in the chair,
also present Messrs Desmond J. Collins, James
R. C. Green, Francis J. Lanigan, John Carrigan,
Gerald Y. Goldberg, Robert McD. Taylor, Bruce
St. J. Blake, Gerald Hickey, James W. O'Donovan,
Augustus Cullen, Rory O'Connor, John J. Nash,
Desmond Moran, Peter E. O'Connell, Joseph
Dundon, W. A. Osborne, P. C. Moore, Brendan
A. McGrath, John Maher, William M. Cahir,
Gerard M. Doyle, Peter D. M. Prentice, T. V.
O'Connor, Patrick Noonan, Ralph J. Walker,
Christopher Hogan.
Committee on Reformatory and Industrial Schools
At the request of the Department of Education
the Council appointed a sub-committee to report
to
this
committee.
John B.
Jermyn, Patrick
Noonan and W. A. Osborne were appointed to
the sub-committee.
Classified Telephone Directory
|
The Council approved of a report of the Privileges
Committee disapproving of the use of bold type
by solicitors in this directory.
i
Criminal Justice Bill
!
The Council appointed a sub-committee to con
sider and report on the contents of this Bill with
.a view to making a public statement as to
its
effect on the rights and liberties of the citizens.; A
sub-committee was appointed to consider the mat
ter; the following were appointed to
the sub
committee: Gerald Y. Goldberg, Bruce St. J. Blake,
Rory O'Connor.
THE FUTURE OF THE PROFESSION
by CHARLES A. FRASER, W.S.
Charles Annand Frascr was born on 16th October
1928. He was educated at Hamilton Academy, his
father being the parish minister there. He did two
years of National Service as a Lieutenant in the
Royal Artillery. Thereafter he was at Edinburgh
University, graduating in Arts and Law. He ap
prenticed with Messrs Baillie and Gifford, W.S.
He has been a partner in the firm of Messrs W.
and J. Burness, W.S., since June 1956. He is a
member of the Council of the Law Society of
Scotland. Married with
three
sons, his home
address is Shepherd House, Inveresk, Midlothian.
PART I
Lawyers may,
in
the past, have
tended to be
slightly conservative, perhaps more concerned with
preserving their status than being vitally interested
in t':e expansion of their functions; more defen
sive than aggressive; and always over-anxious lest
any change should alter the character of the pro
fession which they have chosen; a profession which
has remained substantially unaffected by change
over many generations. To be conservative and to
res st change in
the coming years will not be
possible. Change may well be forced upon the
profession from outside if it is not accepted from
within. Recently the National Board for Prices
and Incomes Report Number 54 on the Remun
eration of Solicitors made some valuable propo
sals. The Monopolies Commission's Report on the
Professions is awaited with interest.
Perhaps it is as well to summarise briefly some
of the obvious changes in society that are taking
place around us and which must, in time, affect
the practice of the law. Wealth is more widely
spread; the population of the world is increasing
at a frightening speed; families are more mobile in
that where, formerly, several generations in one
family might all live and work in the one area,
now, promotion within large groups demands that
employees move from one part of the country to
another not only once but possibly several times
during their working lives; criticism is not spared;
previously accepted ideas are now challenged and
the public wants to know "Why?"; a consequence
of the social welfare state has been
the huge
increase in the annual amount of complex legis
lation affecting the life of virtually every citizen;
legislation which was formerly complicated but
understood by some including most lawyers is now
unbelievably complicated and understood by few
—not even by many lawyers; the modern indus
trial state, as Professor Galbraith observed | in his
Reith Lectures, seems to require that business is
organised
in massive groups with a significant
effect on the communities in which such industrial
giants operate; and lastly and probably most im
portant, the change which may in time have the
most dramatic affect on
the
legal profession,
namely, the invention of the computer.
These are but some of the changes that are
affecting society and must consequently affect the
practice of law. Perhaps therefore we should now
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