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GAZETTE
JULY/AUGUST 1988
From the President . . .
Having been severely taken to task
for referring to everyone in the
masculine in the course of my
speech in Cork, I am now making
amends by addressing this bye-line
to the female members of our
profession.
You are a most important group.
The percentage of female solicitors
is now over 5 0% in each Parch-
ment Pr esen t a t i on Ceremony.
Numerically you are very strong
and getting stronger. We have four
of your number on the Council and
one representative from the Dublin
Solicitors Bar Association and one
from the Southern Law Association
all doing excellent work. In some
Bar Associations you are coming to
the top and taking your rightful pos-
itions as President, Secretary and
committee members.
However, despite all this, I some-
how get the feeling that you are not
as much to the forefront in the pro-
fession as you might be.
I have to ask myself some
questions.
—What percentage of you are part-
ners in firms?
—What percentage of you have
management responsibilities in
offices?
— How many of you serve as offi-
cers or committee members in your
Bar Association.
I believe that the answers to
these questions will show that a
relatively small number will answer
" y e s " to all of the three questions
posed.
If this is the case, then you must
go on and ask yourselves why.
There are probably diverse
reasons, but I think that one of
them is that you are less adventur-
ous than your male colleagues. I
believe that you are much more
likely to be referred clients because
of your professional ability and
reputation than for any other
reason.
I also believe that perhaps you
are not forward enough in making
sure that you get the credit for the
excellence of your work.
I believe that many of you seek
security, so hence you are less
likely to change jobs and, in partic-
ular, you are sometimes reluctant to
take on a challenge such as a job
in a location outside of Dublin.
If you are married and have a
family you have additional respon-
sibilities which can leave you less
time for professional practice. You
rightly will measure your success
by your personal lives as well as
your professional accomplishments.
The trends are that in the future
there will be more of you qualifying.
The success of our profession will
in some way be judged by how the
male and female members integrate
to produce a strong and independ-
ent legal profession.
You have an obligation and re-
sponsibility to play your part. I
know you will do so.
T H OM AS D. SHAW
Pr es i dent
STONEYBATTER
Stoneybatter, or Bothar na gCloc,
w h i c h runs n o r t hwa r ds f r om
Blackhall Place, through the Dublin
village of Stoneybatter, is one of
the oldest roads in Ireland, being
one of the five great roads running
from the Royal seat at Tara. In this
Millennium year of the city of
Dublin the Stoneybatter Com-
munity Council has asked all local
organisations and businesses to
contribute to the erection of a
suitable monument to mark the
presence of this historic road.
The Director General of the Law Society, Mr. James J. Ivers, presenting
a cheque on behalf of the Society to Mr. Eamonn O'Brien, Administrator
of the Stoneybatter Community Council, w i th Mr. Chris Mahon, Director
of Professional Services at the Law Society and Mrs. Ann O'Brien.