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Solicitors’ Bill
Having thus briefly referred to our celebration
o f what was done for us a hundred years ago by an
alien government, I am glad to say that once again
there is every hope, prospect, and assurance that
the long deferred Solicitors Bill for which we have
so long agitated, may soon be introduced in the Dail.
It has been a long struggle. Many o f our Vice-
Presidents had hoped that it might have been
introduced in their terms o f office. I am, however,
now told that it may come very shortly. At times
we have perhaps chafed at the delay, but we do
appreciate the kindness which we have throughout
received from the present Minister for Justice and
from his predecessor, and also from the officials of
the departments mainly concerned.
We believe
that this Bill may yet be our new charter. Perhaps
our descendants may celebrate its centenary with
the bi-centenary o f our charter.
As you all know, some o f the important provisions
which we have sought will enable us, as is hoped, to
provide a Compensation Fund, to be applied at the
discretion of the Council in cases in which the money
o f clients may not be accounted for. Such cases are,
I am thankful to say, rare but we are anxious to
have the necessary power to endeavour to make
provision for them. Equally, or still more important,
will be the powers given to the Society to require
proper accounts to be kept by all solicitors and to
segregate their money while it is in our hands. Those
o f us whose duty it has been to take part in the
disciplinary functions o f the Society know that
where financial deficiencies have in the past arisen,
the cause has most often been that the solicitor
concerned had failed to keep his accounts properly
and had so found himself almost unknowingly on
the wrong side. It is our sincere trust that the Bill
when it comes will fortify us in preventing such
things happening in the future. It is surely the duty
o f the Government and the Legislature to give us
these essential powers. It is no exaggeration to say
that the sums which pass through the hands of
solicitors are in the aggregate exceedingly large.
The losses have been small indeed. I f the intro
duction of the Bill coincides with our centenary
year, it will be a happy augury.
Legal education. Text books
Allied to the questions linked with the Bill are
those o f the legal education available to our pro
fession. Once again one must refer to the paucity
o f law books suitable for either the student or the
practitioner. I do not think that it is sufficiently
realised by those who govern us, or by the public,
how essential these are. Our system o f a combination
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o f statute law and decided cases makes absolutely
essential the publication and periodic bringing up-to*
date o f adequate text books. This need is in the
United Kingdom met adequately by the constant
production and renewal o f standard works upon
which the profession and even the judiciary must
rely to assist their labours. In this country the
market is so small that any adequate reward for
such work can be received by neither author nor
publisher. We, who have grown old since the
inauguration o f the Irish State, have been able to
build on the books which were current in our youth.
This is, however, not possible to the younger men
or to the student. In the absence o f proper books
there is the real danger of the Law becoming an
uncharted sea.
The Legislature is active with new
statutes, the Courts with new interpretations. I f
our legal system is to function adequately there
must be books o f reference. There are, in fact,
almost none. The situation grows worse daily.
It can be remedied only by some State financial aid.
One does not like to suggest new public expenditure,
but this would be both essential and small. In this
connection I must refer to the surprising fart that
even the bound volumes o f the Irish Statutes come
only up to 1947. We are four or five years in arrear.
This, at least, should not be so.
The Council has made representations to the
Department o f Justice on these questions, and they
have been sympathetically received.
Here also
definite action would be most welcome.
University Degrees
I do not wish to leave this part o f my subject
without referring to what is, I think, most regrett
able, namely the diminishing number o f our appren
tices who take University degrees. In the decades
following the first world war something approaching
one-third o f the newly-admitted solicitors were
University graduates. To-day the number would
hardly reach five per cent. That this is so is no
doubt mainly due to the increasing demands on the
work which they must do during apprenticeship.
The difficulty and expense o f obtaining suitable
lodgings and the expense o f living in Dublin are,
no doubt, contributing causes. It is however to
be very deeply deplored. I understand that in
Northern Ireland an apprentice must before signing
his Articles, have obtained a University Degree.
The struggle to obtain the facilities for University
education was one o f the great tasks o f our fathers.
It is tragic that what they achieved should now be
neglected. In my view an apprentice who had first
obtained his University Degree should be entitled
to serve a much shorter apprenticeship. This is a