The Gazette 1961 - 64

" Riverview", Corbally, Co. Limerick (Special Certificate); Mrs. Maire Nic Shiomoin (B.Comm.), Maunsells Road, Galway.

community to practise to a greater or lesser degree anywhere within the community. Up to now, the practice of law has been reserved to those qualified in the State, and, therefore, we have not had to face competition from the specialists in other big centres but this may come and we should be prepared for it. If it does become necessary for us to develop our own specialists then it follows of necessity that solicitors will have to be grouped into larger firms because specialisation is not possible except within a group as every office should be capable of handling any legal problem. In my view the profession in the larger cities and towns will find as time goes on, that it is more essential to group together and to specialise though probably in the country, where work is much more of a local character, this would not be practicable or necessary. I am mentioning this particularly to-day because you, ladies and gentlemen, are embarking on your career and there is always a very great temptation to put up ones own plate and one is apt to imagine that, by so doing, one becomes one's own master, but let me tell you that this is entirely illusory, and the professional man or woman who, to the outside world, is his own boss, must perforce become the slave to his clients if he or she is to be a success. To equip yourselves as best you can for whatever the future may hold I would advise you all strongly not to contemplate setting up on your own at an early stage. If you do you may get enough work to give you a reasonable livelihood but you are bound to lack the general experience which you will get as an assistant with an older and more experienced solicitor. I would encourage you, therefore, for the next few years at any rate to try to gain as much practical experience as you can and, when you have done so, then it is time enough for you to consider starting up on your own either with or without a colleague. If my views on specialisation are correct then you would be well advised from the outset to try and make yourself particularly proficient and an expert in one particular branch of the law. In former days solicitors had the advantage of the experience of the many male clerks that were to be found in the various offices and who were almost permanent institutions. Many of these have passed on but they have not been replaced and the male clerk is becoming less and less a feature of the lawyers office. The pattern seems to be universal and the same trend is noticeable across the water. This means that the young solicitor has to rely more and more on his own efforts and he has not the fund of experience of the clerks from which to draw. Nowadays, a solicitor relies largely on female 17

The President in his address said: Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a real pleasure to me, on behalf of the Council and the Society to present to-day, to the newly admitted solicitors, their Certificates of Enrolment. Your names are already on the Roll and many of you may have started to practise but to-day is the public acknowledgment of your admission to the ranks of practising solicitors. The law is one of the old and honourable professions and you, as members of that profession, have become part of the administration of the law on which all society is founded. The solicitor particularly finds himself involved in all aspects of life from the actual practical work in the courts where the law of the land is enforced, and through which internal peace is maintained, to the day-to-day advice on personal commercial and other problems which arise. The solicitor builds up over the years an invaluable fund of experience enabling him to advise and guide his clients whose problems may seem to them to be unusual or unique. He has a very big responsibility to bear in that, by his advice he can influence and mould the conduct and actions of his clients and by his own standards and conduct can be an influence for good or ill. He has a very large burden to carry in that he is expected to be able to advise his client on technical detailed matters of law and, at the same time to give him general advice how to act on matters that might be termed extra-legal and which are very often more matters of psychology. He is the General Practitioner for the legal pro fession, expected to know something, and more than something, about everything. You are joining the profession at a time of evolution when the world is divided and yet growing more closely together. We see the Common Market looming ahead and we do not know at this stage what this will mean for the legal profession as a whole. The law tends, over the years, to become more and more complex and the pace at which we have to work becomes faster all the time. As a general practitioner it is impossible at the same time to be a specialist but, nevertheless, I think the day of the specialist is coming. In England in the larger firms the different partners are all specialists in their own way in different branches of law, and it may be that if we all become part of a larger community, the doors will be open for lawyers throughout the