346 / 364
Practising as a Lawyer
Law firms will have become associations of
lawyers each specialising in particular branches
of legal business. It will be no rarity for firms in
the big cities to consist of fifty or more lawyers
as do many legal firms in the United States.
Partners will practise in certain specific sub
jects only. Certificates to practise will be issued in
respect of certain broad fields of legal activity,
for example :
(i) company, commercial and rev
enue business; (ii) family business—covering con
veyancing, trusts, will and the administration of
estates; (iii) criminal law or (iv) civil litigation.
The larger firms will have in partnership ac
countants, surveyors and even doctors and other
professional men, while smaller firms will work in
the closest association with members of such other
professions, in order to provide an efficient service
for their clients.
All lawyers will be expected to possess a know
ledge of finance and taxation in all their branches
and
those
in general practice concerned with
commercial and company activities will have a
considerable knowledge of their clients' businesses.
Many firms will have offices overseas and most
of the larger firms concerned with international
business will have
lawyers qualified
to appear
before national courts other than their own and
before international courts of law. The lawyers
so qualified to practise before such courts will
have undergone special training and will be sub
ject not only to their national code of ethics but
to special rules laid down by an international
law society or bar association.
The proportion of lawyers employed wholetime
in commerce and industry will have increased
substantially as more and more of the major in
dustries will have found it advantageous to have
lawyers familiar with their business readily avail
able wholetime and as a result many more lawyers
than at present v/ill be found in management
and on the boards of directors of companies
Lawyers in commerce and industry will properly
be regarded as practising with but a single client
and, as members of the profession, will be bound
by the normal rules of professional ethics and
will preserve their proper professional independ
ence.
Office staff generally will consist of assistant
lawyers, secretarial assistants and machine oper
ators. The telephone and telex will be supple
mented by private television which will enable
documents
to be seen and photographed
im
mediately in other offices, so reducing the need
for copy-typing and avoiding time wasted in postal
exchanges of drafts.
132
Continuing Education
The need to be completely familiar witli their
subject will be so generally accepted that mem
bers of the profession will set aside a fixed period,
weekly or monthly or for a week or so a year,
for high level refresher courses. These courses
will be supplemented throughout the year by
instructional pamphlets which will be made avail
able^ to those practising in each particular field of
law. Advanced courses of longer duration will be
pz'ovided for those wishing to enter or occupying
the higer positions in local government or industry
on such subjects as management and business
efficiency.
All those concerned with criminal practice and
procedure will be trained and kept up to date in
the forensic sciences and, generally, members of the
profession will be
au fait
with current affairs,
the availability of social services, labour conditions
and so on.
Contentious Business
In the field of litigation both civil and criminal
cases will be undertaken in a number of local
circuit courts throughout the country. One appeal
only will lie, except that the appeal judges may
refer a case raising a point of law to general
importance, at the expense of the State, for de
termination by the House of Lords of ultimate
Court of Appeal. There will be separate courts
or divisions for crime, civil litigation, divorce and
matrimonial problems generally, traffic cases and
so on.
The costs of all successful appeals
in civil
litigation will be borne by the State and not
fall on the party who succeeded in the court of
first instance. The Indemnity Rule will have dis
appeared and each party will bear his own costs
except where the court otherwise directs lor good
cause.
Legal aid in civil cases will be available in all
courts and before all tribunals without any means
limits being imposed. The control over the avail
ability of legal aid will be exercised only by the
provisions regulationg the amount of the contri
bution to be paid out of
income and capital
respectively. The legal aid procedure in criminal
cases will be in line with that in civil cases and
those obtaining assistance under it will be re
quired to make contributions on the same basis
as civil litigants, those convicted being required
to pay out of earnings from work undertaken
while serving prison sentences.