The Gazette 1988

GAZETTE

JULY/AUGUST 1988

From the President . . .

all doing excellent work. In some Bar Associations you are coming to the top and taking your rightful pos- itions as President, Secretary and committee members. However, despite all this, I some- how get the feeling that you are not as much to the forefront in the pro- fession as you might be. I have to ask myself some questions. —What percentage of you are part- ners in firms? —What percentage of you have management responsibilities in offices? — How many of you serve as offi- cers or committee members in your Bar Association. I believe that the answers to these questions will show that a relatively small number will answer " y e s " to all of the three questions posed. If this is the case, then you must go on and ask yourselves why. There are probably diverse reasons, but I think that one of them is that you are less adventur- ous than your male colleagues. I believe that you are much more likely to be referred clients because of your professional ability and reputation than for any other reason.

I also believe that perhaps you are not forward enough in making sure that you get the credit for the excellence of your work. I believe that many of you seek security, so hence you are less likely to change jobs and, in partic- ular, you are sometimes reluctant to take on a challenge such as a job in a location outside of Dublin. If you are married and have a family you have additional respon- sibilities which can leave you less time for professional practice. You rightly will measure your success by your personal lives as well as your professional accomplishments. The trends are that in the future there will be more of you qualifying. The success of our profession will in some way be judged by how the male and female members integrate to produce a strong and independ- ent legal profession. You have an obligation and re- sponsibility to play your part. I know you will do so.

Having been severely taken to task for referring to everyone in the masculine in the course of my speech in Cork, I am now making amends by addressing this bye-line to the female members of our profession. You are a most important group. The percentage of female solicitors is now over 5 0% in each Parch- ment Pr esen t a t i on Ceremony. Numerically you are very strong and getting stronger. We have four of your number on the Council and one representative from the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association and one from the Southern Law Association STONEYBATTER Stoneybatter, or Bothar na gCloc, w h i c h runs n o r t hwa r ds f r om Blackhall Place, through the Dublin village of Stoneybatter, is one of the oldest roads in Ireland, being one of the five great roads running from the Royal seat at Tara. In this Millennium year of the city of Dublin the Stoneybatter Com- munity Council has asked all local organisations and businesses to contribute to the erection of a suitable monument to mark the presence of this historic road.

T H OM AS D. SHAW Pr es i dent

The Director General of the Law Society, Mr. James J. Ivers, presenting a cheque on behalf of the Society to Mr. Eamonn O'Brien, Administrator of the Stoneybatter Community Council, w i th Mr. Chris Mahon, Director of Professional Services at the Law Society and Mrs. Ann O'Brien.