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GAZETTE
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1978
SOCIETY OF YOUNG SOLICITORS
SPRING SEMINAR
EVENING DISCUSSIONS
The Spring Seminar is scheduled to take place on the
week-end of 8th/9th April 1978, at the Great Southern
Hotel, Killarney.
The Committee of the Society has felt that it would be
well worthwhile to have a Seminar primarily devoted to
the lot of the solicitor in his profession and the Seminar
has been devised accordingly.
The topics which have been selected for the Seminar
are as follows:—
Topic
1. Partnership in a Legal
Practice
2. The Solicitor as the
Conscience of his
Client.
3. The Solicitor and
Personal Taxation.
4. Drawing of Costs.
Speaker
Walter G. Semple,
Solicitor (Glasgow)
Charles Meredith,
Solicitor
Diarmuid Murray,
Chartered Accountant.
Anthony P. Behan,
Legal Costs Drawer.
All lectures will be held in the Conference Area of the
Great Southern Hotel.
Rates:
The rates for the Spring Seminar are:
Friday night to Sunday Lunch
£24.00
Registration Fee
£4.00
Application forms for the Seminar will be sent out to
all members of the profession four weeks before the
Seminar takes place and those intending to travel to the
Seminar are asked to complete the application forms in
the prescribed manner and return them as soon thereafter
as possible.
Special carriages are being reserved on the
Dublin/Killarney train on Friday evening. Those intending
to travel by train are asked to indicate their intention of so
doing on the application form as the number of carriages
reserved will depend on the number of applicants.
On Monday, 16th January, the Society met with the
Junior Organisation of Chartered Surveyors and the
Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants at Jury's
Hotel for an evening discussion on Wealth Tax.
Mr. John Blake of Craig Gardner & Company,
speaking for the Chartered Accountants, considered the
basis of Wealth Tax Assessment, touching in particular on
the exemptions and concessions given under the Wealth
Tax Act in the manner in which liability to Wealth Tax
could be reduced.
Mr. Ray Ward of Lisney's, speaking on behalf of the
Junior Organisation considered the difficulties of making
valuations. Although the Act provided for self assessment
of Wealth Tax, it was necessary for people to base their
assessment on the Market value of the property and he
touched on the problems inherent in arriving at any fair
valuation.
Mr. John Ross, Solicitor of Matheson, Ormsby &
Prentice, speaking for the Society of Young Solicitors,
emphasised the obligations on solicitors to advise their
clients of the necessity of making returns to the Revenue
and in particular of warning clients when a change of
circumstances might result in the client not being able to
claim an exemption or concession to which he had been
entitled. He instanced the case of a farmer entering into a
contract for the sale of his farm before the 5th April, but
not entering into a contract for the purchase of a new
farm until after 5th April had elapsed. The farmer would,
he suggested, be no longer a farmer within the definition
of the Act on 5th April as he would only be entitled to the
proceeds of sale.
A general discussion which followed the three
introductory papers tended to range over Capital Taxes
generally and in particular over the substantial liability
which could arise in the liquidation of companies and
the importance in particular for purchasers of companies
or their subsidiaries to analyse fully the extent of the tax
liability which they might be taking over.
Arrangements are being made for further Evening
Discussions with members of other professions to be held
in the near future. Force of circumstances require these
evening discussions to be held in Dublin.
The Committee would welcome any suggestions for
meetings with other Societies and the topics which might
be considered.
ACTUARIAL ASSESSMENT OF DAMAGES
Alternative accommodation will be available in the
event of there being insufficient accommodation at the
Great Southern Hotel.
At the Society's Seminar in Sligo in October 1977, Peter
Delaney, FIA, gave a Lecture on this subject. He made
it clear at the outset that he was confining himself to the
role of the Actuary as seen by the Supreme Court in
relation to the Civil Liability Act 1961.
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