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GAZETTE
DECEMBER 1991
Philip Ely,
in his keynote address on
the theme of widening horizons
(again, reflecting the increasing
internationalisation of legal pract-
ice) provided some interesting
reflections from a solicitor with
more than 33 years of service to his
profession behind him. He chose
essentially domestic themes in a
wide-ranging address. He spoke of
the problems facing the profession
in a period of recession in the UK
highlighting the growing cost of
solicitors' overheads. It now costs
the average firm about £27,000 per
year simply to stay in practice and
the cost to the sole practitioner is
about £6 , 000 (these are the
aggrega t i on of t he cost of
practising certificates, investment
business certificates, indemnity
insurance and Compensa t i on
Fund). The recession was also
causing unemp l oyment
and
younger members were now
finding it very difficult to get jobs
on qualifying. But though the re-
cession is biting, Ely believes that
the profession in England is well
placed to meet the challenges. The
quality of those now qualifying,
their academic ability, their training
and their f u r t her con t i nu i ng
education was of a much higher
order t han when he himself
commenced practice, he said.
Technology was also a major
development and he spoke of the
growing awareness and application
of management skills in the
profession. This was also linked to
a growing recognition of the need
for client awareness, efficiency and
communication.
He stressed also how essential it
was to have a strong independent
profession in the UK. "Never before
has there been a greater need for
i ndependent advice and for
independent defence against the
powerful, against the departments
of state, against the monopolistic
institutions which now control the
property market", he said. He
reminded his listeners of the role of
the independent solicitors in the
long and distressing catalogue of
mi shand l ed cases, i nc l ud i ng
Birmingham and Guildford as well
as many other cases where
solicitors carried great responsi-
bility, very often on their own, for
many years. He also spoke about
the inefficient and dishonest in the
profession in the UK and
questioned whether the efficient
solicitors could forever be expected
to protect and pay for the in-
efficient. He also doubted whether
the Law Society itself could sustain
its role or its credibility if it in turn
forever protected the inefficient
and dishonest at the cost of the
efficient and the honest. These no
doubt are themes wh i ch will
strike cords of sympathy in many
quarters of the profession here.
I have no doubt that we shall
be hearing more on
these
subjects.
Judicial review
I attended an interesting session on
the subject of judicial review which,
apparently, has undergone some-
thing of an explosion in recent
years in the UK. First, there was an
assessment of the development of
judicial review by a local authority
solicitor who presented a compre-
hensive outline of how it operated
and the basis upon which judicial
review can be obtained. He also
gave a good deal of statistical
information on its growth of recent
years. Then there was a session
which amounted in essence to an
attack on the judiciary for having
made a mess of judicial review by
James Goudie,
QC. The response
on the part of the judiciary was
given by Lord Justice
Woolf
who
said that, while the judges had not
made a mess of it, they might have
done somewhat better.
To my mind, what was interesting,
from an Irish viewpoint, was the
open and frank way in which these
matters were being discussed with
the judges. One comes across this
time and again at UK conferences.
There appears to be a much greater
willingness to subject all aspects of
the legal system to searching and
critical examination and, apparently,
a willingness on the part of the
judiciary to take part in the process.
Human Rights
Another interesting session was
that devoted to the subject of
human rights in which a number of
eminent lawyers, including
Helena
Kennedy,
QC, who has been
prominently associated with the
Charter 88 Group. She argued the
case for a fundamental revision of
the English constitution to enable
human rights to be better protected
in law. The essential theme of the
speakers was that Britain needed a
written constitution which would
explicitly protect basic human
rights and that the European
Convention on Human Rights
should be directly incorporated into
British law. Some important points
were made about the protection of
the rights of accused persons and
Helena Kennedy, in particular, drew
heavily on the lessons to be learned
from Birmingham and Guildford.
Charter 88, of which she is a
council member, are, of course,
pressing for more than just a Bill of
Rights. They are also seeking
electoral reform and important
changes in relation to t he
appointment of judges.
One could hardly fail to be
impressed by the strength of the
case they made in relation, in
particular, to the protection of the
rights of those accused of criminal
offences and I thought it of con-
siderable interest that they laid
great emphasis on the importance
of access by a solicitor to an
accused person in custody. Their
view was that this should be an
absolute right, with no provision for
derogation from it.
•
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