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A View from Vienna
The 16th Annual Conference of
Presidents of European Law
Societies took place in Vienna
between 12th/14th February, 1988.
De l ega t i ons headed by their
respective Presidents attended
from all the European countries
including those from the Eastern
Block and in all 27 countries were
represented at the Conference. At
the same time, the International Bar
Association ran a Seminar on
"Mu l ti Disciplinary Partnerships"
and the Union International des
Avocats ran a Seminar on "Mus ic
and the Law".
The importance of attending the
Conference was shown to me by
the variety of topics which were
discussed, but perhaps more
importantly, it vividly brought home
to me the fact that we are
European and must be seen to be
European and that our horizons
must be broadened outside the
shores of our island.
At the Converence, each country
read a short report on the present
situation of the legal profession in
t hat country, and t hen sub-
sequen t ly eight papers were
prepared based on replies to ques-
tionnaires sent to the Law Society
of each European country.
By far the most important paper
was that on Multi Disciplinary Part-
nerships or MDPs as they are
called. The concept of MDPs is an
amalgamation of a number of pro-
fessionals in one partnership such
as a solicitor, an accountant, a tax
adviser, a financial consultant and
if it is wished to extend it further,
an estate agent, a surveyor, and
basically any profession which
could be doing a job related to the
task in hand. Already these are
accepted in Germany and Holland
and the representatives of Spain,
Switzerland and Denmark felt that
they were comi ng in their
countries.
The question was posed as to
whether the legal profession should
join wi th the other professions in
providing a "one stop" source of
services or should it remain
separate and distinct and deal with
its own field of expertise. It was
pointed out that in the continental
countries, accountants work as
auditors represented only 55% of
accountancy work and the balance
was represented by tax insolvency
and company work. The argument
against allowing MDPs was based
on the independence of the lawyer,
which it was felt important to
maintain on the grounds that the
lawyer was the person who gave
the independent advice that most
people found to be absolutely
necessary in their transactions.
Arguments were raised by some
delegates that the new system
would be less confidential than the
existing system and the meeting
was generally divided with opinions
expressed for and against the
envisaged new form of partnership.
The Chairman summed it up by
expressing the view that Multi Dis-
c i p l i na ry Partnerships wou ld
probably come with the legal pro-
f ess i on j o i n i ng
w i t h
other
professions who did similar types
of work such as accountants and
tax advisers but not w i t h
professions doing different types of
work such as architects, engineers
and surveyors.
It is interesting to note that the
problem has been considered by
the English Law Society, who have
decided to make no decision on the
basis that there is not a sufficiently
strong consensus of opinion within
the profession to support a change
of the magnitude envisaged. It feels
there is i nsu f f i c i ent common
g r ound be t ween p r o f ess i ons
whose members might enter into
partnerships on the terms on which
such pa r t ne r sh i ps mi ght be
permitted to operate. Instead they
are prepared to allow a system of
profit sharing with non-solicitor
employees provided a partnership is
not thereby formed. They also
propose to introduce a code of
conduct which would seek to
balance the flexibility required to
develop solicitors practices in the
competitive environment in which
they now operate w i t h t he
maintenance of the independence
of the solicitor.
It would seem certain that Ireland
is going to have to face similar
challenges. Accordingly it seems to
me that we must improve the
standard of our qualification by
devoting more time to education
and training particularly in the
commercial law area. Secondly we
must be able to provide solicitors
with specialities in particular fields
who are in a position to provide
consultant or referral service to the
profession and finally, it seems that
the trends will once again move
towards larger firms particularly in
the city relating to commercial law.
Other points which emerged
from the Conference are that there
is going to be a serious shortage of
(Right) The President, Th omas D. Sh aw, w i t h his w i f e , Yvonne,
a t t end i ng t he J u r i s ts Ball at t he Ho f b u rg Palace, Vienna.
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