336 / 364
use is likely to increase and therefore traffic ac
cident cases as well as actions for industrial in
juries are likely to continue to increase also. There
must, therefore, be a continuing and increasing
demand for men and women capable of con
ducting litigation and of acting as advocates.
As regards non-contentious business, the prob
ability seems to be that far less
time will be
devoted to the transfer of property and much
greater importance will be attached to a know
ledge of commercial and company law and prac
tice and especially of revenue law.
For economic reasons, as well as because of
the public need for greater expertise from the
profession and speed of execution,
lawyers
in
general practice will have to specialise to a much
greater extent than at present. Even now, indeed,
it
is doubtful whether any one lawyer should
properly hold himself out as being prepared to
advise on the whole of the law. Certainly for a
lawyer with a general practice in a wide variety
of subjects, it must be completely uneconomic to
endeavour to acquire that expertise in some new
subject, which his client has a right to expect him
to possess, sufficient to enable him fairly to com
pete with a firm on the other side in which some
partner practises almost exclusively in that par
ticular subject.
The days of the single practitioner, therefore,
except in the more remote districts, appear to be
numbered and
in England
there
is already a
steady decline in the number of solicitors practis
ing alone. The existence of a separate Bar cer
tainly assists
the one-man practitioner, by en
abling him
to obtain expert advice, but
this
must be more costly from the client's point of
view and is inevitably slower.
The most valuable public service has been sup
plied for generations by the family lawyer who
has been familiar with his client's family, history
and private affairs. He has been able to give
wise guidance by reason of his background know
ledge of the family as a whole.
So, the need today of the public is emerging
for lawyers in general practice (as
is certainly
so in the case of those engaged in commerce and
industry) to acquire a good working knowledge
of their clients' business affairs, if their advice
is to be of maximum benefit. Time simply will
not permit of this if the lawyer is endeavouring
to practise in many fields of law at the same time
and
there are
the clearest signs of
increased
specialisation.
As regards the 'set up' of law offices, the likeli
hood appears to be that, for reasons of status
among others,
legally unqualified clerks upon
whom the profession has relied so largely in the
past will over the years be replaced by qualified
lawyers, as is the case extensively in the United
States today. Certainly law offices are becoming
mechanised in order to meet the staff position.
The need for keeping up to date, while new
laws emerge from Parliament with great rapidity
and every day sees
the delivery of dozens ot
judgments interpreting the law in some new way,
has already involved the general acceptance of
the need for 'continuing education.'
As regards the training of the future lawyer, its
object must continue to be to produce at ; ts end
a man or woman well grounded in legal principles
and well versed in the practice and procedure
of his or her chosen subject, competent both to
accept and to meet his or her obligations to and
in contemporary society.
This means that the standard of intelligence
and of general knowledge of a candidate for
entry as a law student must remain high. He
must acquire a sound knowledge of legal piin-
ciples, receive a good practical training and reach
a proper vocational level of legal learning, as
distinct from the level set for a university degree
in law, designed to be taken as a discipline by
persons who by no means necessarily intend to
embark upon the law as a career.
As regards the practical training of the future
solicitor, it is debatable whether the time-honoured
system of service under articles of clerkship will
remain adequate—certainly without careful 'vet
ting' of the offices in which students are to serve.
One of the most serious defects in the system of
articled service is that the student can only receive
practical training in the types of work under
taken by the principal to whom he is articled
and even then the extent of the training provided
varies from office to office.
Sooner or later courses of practical training are
likely to have to be provided, possibly on the
lines of an administrative staff college—at least
for those who may be unable to secure a place
as an articled clerk with one of the approved
firms of practising lawyers.
ft will no doubt, always be debatable at what
stage in his chosen profession the young lawyer
should start to specialise. In the law one remains
a student and it is thought that few would deny
that a lawyer, before he starts to specialise, must
have a good general knowledge of the law and
practice. It seems likely, therefore, that the young
lawyer of the future will be required to undergo
a period of restricted practice after qualification.
(To be continued)
122