The Gazette 1977

THE INCORPORA:rED LAW SOCIETY OF IRELAND

NO.5

VOL. 71

JULY 1977

Solicitors in the service of the public MR. BRUCE ST. JOHN BLAKE, President of the Incorporated Law Society delivered the following address at the ceremony of the Presentation of Parchments to newly qualified Solicitors in the Library in the Four Courts, Dublin on 9th June, 1977.

clients as fully qualified solicitors. It is only right and proper that I should once again take the opportunity of publicly paying tribute to F .L.A.C. and to the great service which its members have given to the community with the assistance of qualified members of the legal profession. F .L.A.C. has received and is deserving of the full support of the legal profession, not only on account of the nature of the work that its members are doing, but also because of the fine example it has set to the Profession and indeed also to the Government and in particular because it has demonstrated beyond any doubt the great demand that exists for legal services by the public. This demand has highlighted the urgent need for a comprehensive system of both Civil and criininal Legal Aid which it is earnestly hoped will be introduced as a matter of urgency and to which all the political parties are now committed. Implementation of a comprehensive system of legal aid will have far reaching consequences for the legal profession. It is on you new entrants to the profession on whom the primary responsibility for the operation of the Legal Aid Scheme will rest. Sympathetic Treatment of Clients Those of you who have worked in F.L.A.C. will have discovered that most of the people who come to F .L.A.C. are people with problems and people in trouble. You will find this also to be the situation in legal practice. Always remember that in dealing with your clients you are dealing with human beings who require a very great deal of understanding, patience and tolerance because in many instances they are distressed and confused and need to be treated with a great deal of sympathy. You will soon find that you will have become in addition to a practising lawyer also a practising psychologist in many respects. Clients, as you will quickly discover, can be very impatient. They see their problems only in their own terms and are not concerned with the many other cases with which you will have to deal, nor will they appreciate or greatly care about the complexities of the legal process which militate against a speedy conclusion of their case. Your clients will mainly be concerned with results, but where it is not possible for you to achieve the type of

Before presenting you with your Parchments I would like to take this opportunity of congratulating each and everyone of you on the successful completion of your apprenticeship and of the Society's examinations. The Parchments you are about to receive entitle you to entry on the Roll of Solicitors and to practice the profession which you are now about to enter which has a long and proud tradition of service to the Public of this country. A professional person is one who has special training, ability, competence and aptitude for a very particular type of work. In the case of the legal profession, this work takes the form of service to the Public by the application of knowledge and skill in dealing with the constantly increasing intricacies of an ever growing volume of legislation with the aim of ensuring justice for clients who constitute the Public whom we have the honour to serve. The practice of any profession and particularly the legal profession requires that its members maintain a code of conduct and standards of the very highest integrity and even specialised training and aptitude for the work involved is not sufficient in the absence of the essential requirement of a commitment to the role which also requires dedication, reliability, commonsense and above all a high respect for the dignity of the individual. In entering into practice in the legal profession you are accepting a heavy burden and heavy responsibilities to which you will prove yourselves equal because I know that you could not have accepted this commitment without a true sense of vocation and purpose. The legal profession is one of the very few, if not in fact, the only truly independent profession. It should be remembered that one of our most important and fundamental roles is that we provide the means whereby the rights of the citizens, freedom of the individual and liberty of the subject as are guaranteed by the Constitution can be vindicated and upheld. Importance of Free Legal Aid Centres Many of you who are today entering the Profession have had valuable experience of contact with members of the public through F.L.A.C. :and this will prove of great assistance to you in dealing with the problems of your