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The Relationship of Solicitor and
Barrister
All
lawyers will have undergone
the same
practical and theoretical training and have passed
the same vocational examinations. All those who
obtain a certificate to practise in criminal law or
in civil litigation will be entitled to appear as
advocates before all the appropriate courts (or
divisions)
in
the country. The relationship be
tween solicitors and barristers will approximate
very closely to that at present existing between
the general medical practitioner and the consultant
or surgeon.
Lawyers will decide when they wish to specialise
at 'the Bar' and it will be on the basis that,
whether acting as consultants or pleaders, they
accept
instructions only
through members of
their own profession and, if they elect to return
to general practice, as they may freely do, they
will not act as a general practitioner for any lay
client introduced to them whilst practising at the
Bar.
The Professional Bodies
Membership of the legal profession will carry
with it the generally accepted obligation to play
a full part in the work of the professional or
ganisations. Through various standing committees,
the law societies and bar associations will have
a major task to fulfill in the discharge of the
profession's duty to provide public services and
to assist the practising lawyer. In addition to the
administration of legal aid and advice schemes,
such bodies will be responsible or a planned
national programme of law reform through stand
ing committees of the profession dealing with
particular subjects in which they are expert. All
proposed legislation will be submitted in draft to
these standing committees before the Bill
is laid
before Parliament to ensure that the practising
lawyers agree—not on policy, but that the pro
visions are practicable and will work no accidental
injustice, as
is
the position
to-day in Western
Germany.
The professional bodies will continue to regard
it as a public duty to recruit and train the future
generation of lawyers and to maintain the stand
ard of efficiency of the practising profession and
will accordingly accept the responsibility for pro
viding educational facilities and
the advanced
courses of the continuing education programme.
Not only will they ensure the integrity and ef
ficiency of the profession through their disciplinary
procedures and the administration of compensa
tion or indemnity funds, but they will administer
an insurance scheme to cover liability for pro
fessional negligence. Negligence and unnecessary
delays will be regarded as
incompatible with
professional status.
Research will figure largely in each year's pro
gramme and this will extend not only to legal
research for the purposes of law reform, but to
'consumer' needs, so that the educational scheme
may meet public requirements, and to
'profes
sional earnings' so that a constant watch may be
kept
to
ensure
that
the profession,
is
fairly
and adequately remunerated.
Without suitable rewards it will be impossible
to attract into a profession, where the respon
sibilities are so heavy, men and women of the
calibre essential if a vital public service is to be
maintained.
There remains a heavy burden to be borne in
supplying to the profession itself the services which
it will expect and need. The law societies will
retain the supporting staff for legal offices and
no doubt operate employment agencies to help
to fill vacancies for personnel. They will make
arrangements for the availability of mechanical
aids to efficiency of all kinds including computers
for the use of the profession collectively in so
far as they may be too expensive to be acquired
by individual firms for use in their offices, com
puters being used for a wide variety of purposes
including law libraries.
Then there will be the responsibility for carry
ing out an active and well-planned public rela
tions programme to ensure that the public are
kept fully informed of the legal services available
to
them,
that the profession
itself may know
what is being done and may know the respects in
which they may be any changes in the public
demand for them.
Finally, at the risk of ensuring that the wiiter
does not survive to see the extent to which these
forecasts are fulfilled, he suggests
that by
the
year AD 2000 a serious effort will be made to
combine the respective laws, practices and pro
cedures of England and Scotland so that the best
of each will have been incorporated in some uni
form system which will have led to the raising
of the present iron curtain which prevents the
lawyers of one part from practising in the other
part of the 'United' Kingdom.
(Concluded)
SOCIETY OF YOUNG SOLICITORS
An Ordinary General Meeting was held on 15th
February at Buswells Hotel, Molesworth Street.
Mr. M. K. O'Connor delivered an instructive
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