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the term is applied to a professional person as such.
The word professional is further applied to a person
with special training for a very particular type of work.
It would be further true to say that ideally any person
who decides to embark upon a professional career
should have a vocation as well as a commitment to and
aptitude for the type of work involved. The practise of
a profession requires that its members maintain a code
of conduct and standards of the very highest integrity
and specialised training and aptitude for the calling
in question is not sufficient without the essential re-
quirement of commitment to the role which also in-
volves dedication, reliability, common sense, imparti-
ality and above all the highest respect for the dignity
of the individual. In the case of the practise of the
legal profession and with particular regard to solicitors
in addition to the foregoing qualities, total honesty,
respect for the truth, common sense and a broad mind
are also essential. In practising a profession we are not
buying or selling commodities but rather we are offer-
ing a service. It is precisely this essential difference
between the running of a business and the practising of
a profession that creates a lot of misunderstanding of
the role of a profession on the part of the public. In
the case of the legal profession and in particular with
regard to solicitors, a great deal of our work is unseen
by the clients whom we serve and is almost totally un-
known to the public at large and any publicity we
receive is usually adverse and concerns high fees. What
the public do not hear or appreciate, however, is the
number of hours, days, weeks, months or even years
that a solicitor may spend on a particular problem or
series of problems for a client and this is one of the
probably rather unfair facts of life with which we in
the Solicitor's Profession must contend, nevertheless,
considerable consolation can be gained if we are secure
in the knowledge that we have performed the service
for which we were retained. I think that the essence
of the Solicitor's role could best be summed up by a
reply that I was given recently by a young aspiring
Solicitor's Apprentice to my question as to why they
wished to become a Solicitor. The reply was simply
"because I want to help people".
The image of the profession
It is difficult to give a clear picture not to mention
summarise, the image that the legal profession creates
from without when one is of necessity speaking from
within to what is in effect not just a captive but
hopefully a sympathetic audience and the following
two quotations may serve to illustrate what I have been
attempting to describe in regard to the profession.
"True, we build no bridges. We raise no towers. We
construct no engines. We paint no pictures—unless as
amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is
little of all that we do which the eye of man can see.
But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we
correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and
by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of
men in a peaceful state"—John W. Davis.
"I have a high opinion of lawyers. With all their
faults, they stack up well against those in every other
occupation or profession. They are better to work with
or play with or fight with or drink with, than most
other varieties of mankind"—Harrison Tweed.
We should next turn briefly to the role of the legal
profession in our community and here I feel personally
that we are not as influential a body as we ought and
deserve and are entitled to be. We are one of the few,
if not in fact the only, truly independent professions.
We are not in any way a State service nor are we
dependant for our remuneration as are so many of our
brother professions upon the State. We are not an arm
of Government although many of our members are in
the Government service but as such the practising legal
profession is totally and essentially independent from
all the organs of the State and in our own way we
have a type of independence which is similar to that of
the judiciary and this is indirectly recognised from the
fact that we are by statute
officers of the Court
and as
a result are in a privileged position which does not
have any real comparison with any other profession. In
the last resort it must never be forgotten that we are by
virtue of our total independence from the organs of
State and Government an essential bulwark between
the liberty of the individual citizen and the State with
its attendant panoply of bureaucracy. In this regard
probably our most important and fundamental role is
that as a profession we are the guarantor of the freedom
of the individual and the liberty of the subject. We arc
the vehicle or the means whereby the citizen can ensure
that his fundamental rights as guaranteed to him by
our Gonstitution can be vindicated and upheld. With-
out the legal profession the Gourts would be unable
to ensure that the fundamental rights of the indivi-
dual citizen could be effectively guaranteed to him-
This does not mean that the individual citizen is not
entitled to seek his own remedies and redress in the
Gourts if he is being denied his fundamental rights or
his liberty as a subject but in practice due to the
complexities of the law in the vast majority of cases he
will require the services of the legal profession. I hope
that another quotation will serve to underline the very
comprehensiveness of the part that the legal profession
is called upon to play in its service to the community.
"You have everything that goes into life : they get
married, get divorced, they have children, they buy
property, they sign contracts. The law is the only
profession I know of which is from before the cradle to
after the grave. That's why it is such a satisfying way
to spend a life"—Martin Gang, California Bar.
The role of the solicitor as a member of the profession
Let us next consider the role of the individual Soli-
citor as a member of his profession. I personally prefer
the term Lawyer rather than Solicitor. I feel that the
word Solicitor, suggesting as it does the actual soliciting
of business is outmoded in the context of the present
day world, when there are so many vast fields of work
open to Lawyers which completely eliminate the neces-
sity of having to solicit or canvass business. In any event,
it need hardly be added, that soliciting and canvassing
are rightly regarded as unprofessional and, paradoxi-
cally enough, would, under the Solicitors' Acts, be con-
strued as of professional misconduct or conduct un-
becoming of a Solicitor. As a member of the Solicitors
profession, all the above remarks with regard to in-
tegrity, honesty, dedication, the necessity to show and
command respect apply with equal force. A Solicitor
must at all times be conscientious in his dealings both
with his colleagues, his clients and the public, but he
must never do anything that might leave him open to
the accusation of being guilty of professional miscon-
duct. In these days of monetary inflation resulting in
high property values and large damages it is necessary
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