128 / 264
THE INCORPORA:rED LAW SOCIETY OF IRELAND
JULY 1977
VOL. 71
NO.5
Solicitors in the service of the public
MR. BRUCE ST. JOHN BLAKE, President of the Incorporated Law Society
delivered the following address at the ceremony of the Presentation
of Parchments to newly qualified Solicitors in the Library in the Four
Courts, Dublin on 9th June, 1977.
Before presenting you with your Parchments I would like
to take this opportunity of congratulating each and
everyone of you on the successful completion of your
apprenticeship and of the Society's examinations. The
Parchments you are about to receive entitle you to entry
on the Roll of Solicitors and to practice the profession
which you are now about to enter which has a long and
proud tradition of service to the Public of this country.
A professional person is one who has special training,
ability, competence and aptitude for a very particular
type of work. In the case of the legal profession, this work
takes the form of service to the Public by the application
of knowledge and skill in dealing with the constantly
increasing intricacies of an ever growing volume of
legislation with the aim of ensuring justice for clients who
constitute the Public whom we have the honour to serve.
The practice of any profession and particularly the
legal profession requires that its members maintain a code
of conduct and standards of the very highest integrity and
even specialised training and aptitude for the work
involved is not sufficient in the absence of the essential
requirement of a commitment to the role which also
requires dedication, reliability, commonsense and above
all a high respect for the dignity of the individual.
In entering into practice in the legal profession you are
accepting a heavy burden and heavy responsibilities to
which you will prove yourselves equal because I know
that you could not have accepted this commitment
without a true sense of vocation and purpose. The legal
profession is one of the very few, if not in fact, the only
truly independent profession. It should be remembered that
one of our most important and fundamental roles is that
we provide the means whereby the rights of the citizens,
freedom of the individual and liberty of the subject as are
guaranteed by the Constitution can be vindicated and
upheld.
Importance of Free Legal Aid Centres
Many of you who are today entering the Profession
have had valuable experience of contact with members of
the public through F.L.A.C. :and this will prove of great
assistance to you in dealing with the problems of your
clients as fully qualified solicitors.
It
is only right and
proper that I should once again take the opportunity of
publicly paying tribute to F .L.A.C. and to the great
service which its members have given to the community
with the assistance of qualified members of the legal
profession. F .L.A.C. has received and is deserving of the
full support of the legal profession, not only on account of
the nature of the work that its members are doing, but
also because of the fine example it has set to the
Profession and indeed also to the Government and in
particular because it has demonstrated beyond any doubt
the great demand that exists for legal services by the
public. This demand has highlighted the urgent need for a
comprehensive system of
both
Civil and
criininal
Legal Aid
which it is earnestly hoped will be introduced as a matter
of urgency and to which all the political parties are now
committed. Implementation of a comprehensive system of
legal aid will have far reaching consequences for the legal
profession. It is on you new entrants to the profession on
whom the primary responsibility for the operation of the
Legal Aid Scheme will rest.
Sympathetic Treatment of Clients
Those of you who have worked in F.L.A.C.
will
have
discovered that most of the people who come to F .L.A.C.
are people with problems and people in trouble. You
will
find this also to be the situation in legal practice. Always
remember that in dealing with your clients you are dealing
with human beings who require a very great deal of
understanding, patience and tolerance because in many
instances they are distressed and confused and need to be
treated with a great deal of sympathy. You will soon find
that you will have become in addition to a practising
lawyer also a practising psychologist in many respects.
Clients, as you will quickly discover, can be very
impatient. They see their problems only in their own
terms and are not concerned with the many other cases
with which you will have to deal, nor will they appreciate
or greatly care about the complexities of the legal process
which militate against a speedy conclusion of their case.
Your clients will mainly be concerned with results, but
where it is not possible for you to achieve the type of