The Gazette 1961

" Riverview", Corbally, Co. Limerick

(Special

Certificate); Mrs. Maire Nic Shiomoin (B.Comm.),

Maunsells Road, Galway.

The President in his address said:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a real pleasure to me, on behalf of the Council

and the Society to present to-day, to the newly

admitted solicitors, their Certificates of Enrolment.

Your names are already on the Roll and many of

you may have started to practise but to-day is the

public acknowledgment of your admission to the

ranks of practising solicitors.

The law is one of the old and honourable

professions and you, as members of that profession,

have become part of the administration of the law

on which all society is founded.

The solicitor particularly finds himself involved

in all aspects of life from the actual practical work

in the courts where the law of the land is enforced,

and through which internal peace is maintained, to

the day-to-day advice on personal commercial and

other problems which arise. The solicitor builds

up over the years an invaluable fund of experience

enabling him to advise and guide his clients whose

problems may seem to them to be unusual or unique.

He has a very big responsibility to bear in that, by

his advice he can influence and mould the conduct

and actions of his clients and by his own standards

and conduct can be an influence for good or ill.

He has a very large burden to carry in that he is

expected to be able to advise his client on technical

detailed matters of law and, at the same time to give

him general advice how to act on matters that might

be termed extra-legal and which are very often more

matters of psychology.

He is the General Practitioner for the legal pro

fession, expected to know something, and more than

something, about everything.

You are joining the profession at a time of

evolution when the world is divided and yet growing

more closely together. We see the Common Market

looming ahead and we do not know at this stage

what this will mean for the legal profession as

a whole.

The law tends, over the years, to become more

and more complex and the pace at which we have to

work becomes faster all the time. As a general

practitioner it is impossible at the same time to be

a specialist but, nevertheless, I think the day of the

specialist is coming. In England in the larger firms

the different partners are all specialists in their own

way in different branches of law, and it may be that

if we all become part of a larger community, the

doors will be open for lawyers throughout the

community to practise to a greater or lesser degree

anywhere within the community.

Up to now, the practice of law has been reserved

to those qualified in the State, and, therefore, we

have not had to face competition from the specialists

in other big centres but this may come and we should

be prepared for it. If it does become necessary for

us to develop our own specialists then it follows of

necessity that solicitors will have to be grouped

into larger firms because specialisation is not possible

except within a group as every office should be

capable of handling any legal problem.

In my view the profession in the larger cities and

towns will find as time goes on, that it is more

essential to group together and to specialise though

probably in the country, where work is much more

of a local character, this would not be practicable

or necessary.

I am mentioning this particularly to-day because

you, ladies and gentlemen, are embarking on your

career and there is always a very great temptation

to put up ones own plate and one is apt to imagine

that, by so doing, one becomes one's own master,

but let me tell you that this is entirely illusory, and

the professional man or woman who, to the outside

world, is his own boss, must perforce become the

slave to his clients if he or she is to be a success.

To equip yourselves as best you can for whatever

the future may hold I would advise you all strongly

not to contemplate setting up on your own at an

early stage. If you do you may get enough work to

give you a reasonable livelihood but you are bound

to lack the general experience which you will get

as an assistant with an older and more experienced

solicitor.

I would encourage you, therefore, for the next

few years at any rate to try to gain as much practical

experience as you can and, when you have done so,

then it is time enough for you to consider starting

up on your own either with or without a colleague.

If my views on specialisation are correct then you

would be well advised from the outset to try and

make yourself particularly proficient and an expert

in one particular branch of the law.

In former days solicitors had the advantage of the

experience of the many male clerks that were to be

found in the various offices and who were almost

permanent institutions. Many of these have passed

on but they have not been replaced and the male

clerk is becoming less and less a feature of the

lawyers office. The pattern seems to be universal

and the same trend is noticeable across the water.

This means that the young solicitor has to rely more

and more on his own efforts and he has not the fund

of experience of the clerks from which to draw.

Nowadays, a solicitor relies largely on female