The Gazette 1988

GAZETTE

APRIL 1 9 88

A View from Vienna

of the magnitude envisaged. It feels there is i nsu f f i c i ent common g r ound be t ween p r o f ess i ons whose members might enter into partnerships on the terms on which such pa r t ne r sh i ps mi ght be permitted to operate. Instead they are prepared to allow a system of profit sharing with non-solicitor employees provided a partnership is not thereby formed. They also propose to introduce a code of conduct which would seek to balance the flexibility required to develop solicitors practices in the competitive environment in which they now operate w i t h t he maintenance of the independence of the solicitor. It would seem certain that Ireland is going to have to face similar challenges. Accordingly it seems to me that we must improve the standard of our qualification by devoting more time to education and training particularly in the commercial law area. Secondly we must be able to provide solicitors with specialities in particular fields who are in a position to provide consultant or referral service to the profession and finally, it seems that the trends will once again move towards larger firms particularly in the city relating to commercial law. Other points which emerged from the Conference are that there is going to be a serious shortage of

The 16th Annual Conference of Presidents of European Law Societies took place in Vienna between 12th/14th February, 1988. De l ega t i ons headed by their respective Presidents attended from all the European countries including those from the Eastern Block and in all 27 countries were represented at the Conference. At the same time, the International Bar Association ran a Seminar on "Mu l ti Disciplinary Partnerships" and the Union International des Avocats ran a Seminar on "Mus ic and the Law". The importance of attending the Conference was shown to me by the variety of topics which were discussed, but perhaps more importantly, it vividly brought home to me the fact that we are European and must be seen to be European and that our horizons must be broadened outside the shores of our island. At the Converence, each country read a short report on the present situation of the legal profession in t hat country, and t hen sub- sequen t ly eight papers were prepared based on replies to ques- tionnaires sent to the Law Society of each European country. By far the most important paper was that on Multi Disciplinary Part- nerships or MDPs as they are called. The concept of MDPs is an amalgamation of a number of pro- fessionals in one partnership such as a solicitor, an accountant, a tax adviser, a financial consultant and if it is wished to extend it further, an estate agent, a surveyor, and basically any profession which could be doing a job related to the task in hand. Already these are accepted in Germany and Holland and the representatives of Spain, Switzerland and Denmark felt that they were comi ng in their countries. The question was posed as to whether the legal profession should join wi th the other professions in providing a "one stop" source of services or should it remain separate and distinct and deal with its own field of expertise. It was pointed out that in the continental countries, accountants work as auditors represented only 55% of accountancy work and the balance

was represented by tax insolvency and company work. The argument against allowing MDPs was based on the independence of the lawyer, which it was felt important to maintain on the grounds that the lawyer was the person who gave the independent advice that most people found to be absolutely necessary in their transactions. Arguments were raised by some delegates that the new system would be less confidential than the existing system and the meeting was generally divided with opinions expressed for and against the envisaged new form of partnership. The Chairman summed it up by expressing the view that Multi Dis- c i p l i na ry Partnerships wou ld probably come with the legal pro- f ess i on j o i n i ng w i t h other professions who did similar types of work such as accountants and tax advisers but not w i t h professions doing different types of work such as architects, engineers and surveyors. It is interesting to note that the problem has been considered by the English Law Society, who have decided to make no decision on the basis that there is not a sufficiently strong consensus of opinion within the profession to support a change

(Right) The President, Th omas D. Sh aw, w i t h his w i f e , Yvonne, a t t end i ng t he J u r i s ts Ball at t he Ho f b u rg Palace, Vienna.

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