The Gazette 1988

G A Z E T TE

Advertising The Great Debate or the Great Mistake!

In 1986, the members of the Law Society voted at their Annual General Meet ing not to introduce a limited f o rm of advertising for the profession; it is intended in this article to re-examine the issues and to consider the changes both economic and legislative wh i ch have altered the market place and, to suggest that the profession needs to change its attitude towards advertising if it wishes to take an active part in a changed business environment. It is generally accepted that the belief that it would increase the

extremely well illustrated by Loose- more and Parsons at their recent seminars. Furthermore, it was considered that solicitors who are specialists in unusual areas of practice would benefit from being able to advertise their expertise. The reasons put forward by those members who opposed the introduction of advertising were summarised in a circular sent to most members prior to the meeting in 1986. fa) No d ema nd f r om t he pub l ic There was no demand from the public for the introduction of ad- vertising for solicitors. It was suggested that the public con- sidered that the independence of the p r o f es s i on wo u ld be jeopardised by competition arising from advertising. As an alternative to individual advertising they pre- ferred the introduction of ins- titutional advertising. (b) So l i c i t o r / c l i ent r e l a t i on s h ip w o u l d be d ama g ed The public would not have a better service available to them from the legal profession as a result of the introduction of advertising. It was stated that the relationship between solicitor and client is not a normal commercial relationship, that it is based on trust, and advertising would jeopardise this relationship.

earning power of solicitors and ultimately increase profits. Their position may be summarised as follows:

solicitors can market their firm provided the marketing is not touting or advertising. There seems to be no generally ac cep t ed definition for touting. Advertising is defined as " t he paid use of the media". In 1984 the President of the Law Society circularised all members w i th a discussion document on advertising and invited submissions on its c o n t e n t s. No serious reservations were expressed to the President and thus the Law Society proceeded to circularise the pro- fession w i th new draft regulations on advertising for implementation at the beginning of September 1986. In August 1986 a group of solicitors pe t i t i oned the Law Society to withdraw the draft re gulations and at the meeting in November 1986, the members voted to withdraw the regulation. The unfortunate aspect of the affair was that the reservations of the members to the new draft regulations were neither aired nor discussed prior to the meeting. The meeting was not the place to debate the issue as most solicitors who attended the meeting had made up their minds prior to travelling to Dublin. The Law Society must therefore accept responsibility for failing to take any steps to have the matter debated prior to the meeting. All the more so as they made no attempt either to support their previously stated position or to make sure these draft regulations were approved and implemented. Their attitude was reminiscent of recent government handling of various government referenda on the Constitution. The members who supported the introduction of advertising did so in

By John M. Bourke So l i c i t or

(a) Comp e t i t i on So l i c i t o r s, pa r t i cu l a r ly t hose practising in the Dublin area, felt that as a result of market changes in recent times, other professions had expanded their practices into areas no rma l ly exc l us i ve to solicitors. Examples given of these areas included accountants adver- tising their specialities in company wo rk and claims consu l t an ts specialising in accidents. The main advantage these people had over solicitors was that they could advertise their services. (b) Expans i on of p r a c t i ce Too many solicitors (this applies outside Dublin as much as inside Dublin) are suffering financially from hard times because of the economic depression. The intro- duction of advertising would enable solicitors to market their services more widely and, by advertising, encourage new business into their offices. Not every Irish person has a solicitor but it should be the ambition of our profession to make sure they do. (c) Expansion of areas of practice Many solicitors saw the opportunity in advertising to expand their services into new areas, for examp le c omm i s s i on ea r n i ng mortgage brokerage which was

John M. Bourke, Solicitor, Dublin.

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