55 / 364
Prentice and myself together with our Secretary, Mr. Eric
Plunkett, attended and gave evidence before the Commission.
We were very courteously received and suggested certain
amendments to the original memorandum which was prepared
in 1961. The members of the deputation were questioned at
great length by the President of the Commission, His Honour
The Chief Justice, Mr. Cearbhaill 6 Dalaig, and by several
other members of the Commission.
It was very clear that
the Commission was extremely interested in what we had to
say and appreciated our suggestions. We are looking forward
to the report of the Commission which will be published
sometime in the future.
Delays
It is with regret that I must draw attention to considerable
delays which occur in a large number of the Court and other
offices dealing with legal matters. So far as can be ascertained
the chief cause of these delays is the failure to obtain sufficient
trained staff to deal with the work which keeps increasing.
I do not for one moment wish to blame any particular
office or any officials. On the contrary, I have no hesitation
in saying that in all the Court offices, solicitors receive every
possible courtesy and help but the fact remains that when
officials retire it is not always possible to fill the vacancies
with experienced qualified staff and whether the reason for
this is that the salaries offered are not sufficiently attractive
nowadays or whether there are other reasons, I do not know.
Delays are very irritating so far as our profession is concerned
and it is the general public which suffers most. They, of
course, are inclined to blame solicitors for delays in connection
with any legal work when the truth of the matter is that the
major delays are caused by the time it takes to deal with
matters in the Court and other offices.
I certainly do not
think it right that the Civil Service should be asked to under
take additional functions at considerable cost to the taxpayer
when the work can be performed efficiently as part of a pro
fessional service and if it was found possible to fill vacancies
which occur through the death or retirement of competent
officials this would, I believe, remove a lot of the delays in
legal matters of which the public and our profession complain.
Meeting of International Bar
Association
The meeting of the International Bar Association was held
this year in Mexico City from the 25th July to the znd August.
The Law Society of England and Wales chartered a plane
from London to Mexico to take most of the European
delegates.
I represented the Society at this conference. The
President of Mexico attended the formal opening of the
conference and later in the week invited all the delegates and
guests to a reception in the National Palace. The Mexican
Government made available a very substantial grant to ensure
its success and the lawyers of Mexico City deserve the greatest
credit for the excellence of their organisation. Their task
was a difficult one but they dealt with it effectively and with
the assistance of wives, relations and friends of their members
and a large number of university students, they were able to
staff fully the many offices dealing with such matters as the
registration of delegates, the issuing of programmes and
lickets for the various functions, the provision of coffee and
soft drinks to all persons attending the conference and the
provision of a huge staff to deal with the simultaneous
translations of the various speeches and addresses at the
conference itself.
A special programme for the wives and families of the
delegates was also prepared. This included a costume show
of typical Mexican costume, a visit to four of the colonial
homes in San Angel, a visit to the National Institute of
Protection of Childhood and a visit to the Pyramids, to mention
but a few, and in addition all the delegates and their wives
and families were invited to a performance of Mexican
folklore ballet at the Palace of Fine Arts. Finally, the Jockey
Club of Mexico invited all the delegates and visitors to the
races held at the American Hippodrome and subsequently to
a cocktail party at the Jockey Club Mexicano. Mr. John
Carrigan and his wife were the only people from Ireland who
made the long journey to Mexico and his knowledge of
procedure gained at previous conferences was an enormous
help to me.
All the delegates and their wives were invited to dinner at
least once during the week of the conference to the home of
either a lawyer or some other well known citizen of Mexico
City and it would be quite impossible to exaggerate the
hospitality which was extended to everyone.
Mr. Loyd Wright who has been the President of the Inter
national Bar Association for the past ten years attended the
Annual Meeting at which he tendered his resignation for
domestic reasons and this resignation was accepted with great
regret. Earlier in the year there had been extended to a large
number of the delegates an invitation from the Los Angeles
Bar Association to spend four days in Los Angeles as the
guests of the Los Angeles Bar Association and sixty of the
delegates accepted this invitation and we were all put up in
the homes of Los Angeles lawyers and their families. A
programme was arranged to cover those four days and this
included a visit to the Los Angeles Courts, lunching with
a very large number of judges, a visit to Disneyland and to
some of the principal motion picture studios. Our short stay
in Los Angeles concluded with a dinner given by three of the
Los Angeles lawyers and to summarise this short trip, I would
like to say that no words could describe the hospitality which
was made available for all of us during our stay. I would also
like to put on record our thanks to Mr. Loyd Wright and
Mr. Glendon Tremaine, the secretary of the Los Angeles
Bar Association.
We left Mexico City on our return journey in the chartered
plane on August izth and arrived the same evening in New
York. Later that evening, we attended the reception and
ball given in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel by the American Bar
Association. Mr. Walter Craig, the President of the American
Bar Association, and his wife had extended invitations to us
and this was a very memorable function.
There were,
approximately, 7,500 people present.
The venue of the next meeting of the International Bar
Association which will be held in 1966 has not yet been
settled but it will almost certainly be somewhere in Europe
and will take place during the months of July or August. The
new president is Dr. jur Bernt Hjejle, who has agreed to act
as president for a period of two years.
Once more I would like to remind you all that attendance
at these conferences is open to all members of the Incorporated
Law Society.
The Succession Bill
As you are aware a Succession Bill was introduced in July
of this year and I had intended to speak very fully regarding
the Bill. However, circumstances made it necessary for the
Council to call for a special meeting of the profession to
discuss it and on Thursday, the zgth October, the meeting
was held here in the Solicitors' Buildings.
It was very well
attended and at least one representative of every bar association
in the country was present. The personal views of members
and in some cases the views of the bar associations which
were represented were fully expressed and finally the meeting
passed a unanimous resolution approving of the action
which the Council had taken. The day after the meeting
a deputation from our Society had a long interview with
Mr. Brian Lenihan, the Minister for Justice, regarding two
memoranda which had been submitted to him by the Council.