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provision of the necessary financial resources if it

is to be implemented. It is recommended that the

age of criminal responsibility should be raised to

twelve years. The Society submitted a memoran

dum to the Commission and welcome the publi

cation of the report which

is commended

to

members who are interested in this urgent social

problem.

Decimalisation:

In Autumn, 1969 two bulletins were published

and circulated

to members with

the Society's

Gazette drawing the attention of the profession

to the necessity of preparing for decimalisation.

D-day will

be Monday, 15th February 1971.

Fortunately

the problems affecting

solicitors'

offices are far less complex than those of traders

and manufacturers but the profession must take

all necessary steps to effect a smooth change-over

both for their clients and for their own internal

office system. It is advisable to make preparations

to have the office and clients books of account

written up and balanced before D-day if possible

so that all balances on the accounts can be con

verted to decimals.

The two bulletins already

published by the Society are being up-dated with

the assistance of the Decimal Currency Board

and will be re-issued in the near future with the

Society's Gazette. Members who attended the

recent Seminar at Sligo of the Society of Young

Solicitors had

the opportunity of hearing a

valuable talk on the subject by Mr. Morrison an

official of the Board.

General:

I make no apology for referring again to the

delays in various Government offices which make

much of our work so frustrating.

Complaints

continue to be received about the delays in the

Estate Duty Office and the Land Registry and

even the most efficient solicitor may suffer from

the bad impression given to the public owing to

delays in Government departments due to under-

staffing and other causes. Of course there are

members of the profession who put things on the

long finger. I wonder how many of us could put

our hands on our hearts and say that none of the

delays in our offices are our own fault or the

fault of counsel. I think it behoves us to put our

own houses in order before, or as well as, critic

ising others. Clearly, we must all consider con

stantly how we

can

improve our efficiency,

whether by amalgamation or in other ways, by

more mechanization and so on. I believe that it

is essential to have partners or to have some

method of sharing the load. Greater efficiency is

not the only reason for amalgamation or at least

for taking a partner. It is a fact that 99% of the

claims against the Compensation Fund are against

one-man businesses. The 1970 solicitor has to be

a man of parts, so many parts that it is becoming

daily more impossible for the solicitor practising

on his own to do all that is expected of him. He

may have to be an advocate in the District Court

in the morning and do work far removed from

the drama of the Court in the afternoon. His

work may range from acting for the buyer of a

house to making a will or forming a company or

he may be giving advice on tax problems, en

forcing a contract or drawing up a brief for a

barrister to present a case in Court.

He is also likely to be consulted and asked

to advise on matters which are not strictly legal

matters at all but in which his experience and

knowledge are invaluable.

The only way the

profession can give

the sort of service which

clients expect nowadays is by providing specialists

in

tax, crime, commercial work, trusts, town

planning, litigation and other subjects.

We are inviting a number of solicitors offices

to participate in a time costing exercise. We

recognise of course that in the average solicitors

practice at the moment some jobs must subsidize

others and it would be valuable and instructive

to find out to what extent particular work is re

munerative and what work would have to be

refused or left undone if purely commercial or

economic considerations were taken into account.

Recently I was privileged to attend the National

Conference of the Law Society at Bristol. In his

Inaugural Address the President, Mr. Godfrey

Morley said among other things and

I quote

"more and more in recent years we have been

forced into the position in which the financial

security of solicitors has become a matter of

nagging anxiety. There is little conception of the

burden ,of overheads we carry or the need we

have to maintain a proper balance in the practices

we run. The arduous and anxious work of liti

gation has been rendered less and less economic

to the solicitor and when the signs of this become

apparent we find ourselves subjected to criticism

because we seem to be choosing only the more

remunerative work while neglecting work which

has always been the fundamental element in the

lawyers work namely

the maintenance of

the

lawful rights of citizens". Our problems here are

very similar. Our burden of overheads has been

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