The Gazette 1964/67

Prentice and myself together with our Secretary, Mr. Eric Plunkett, attended and gave evidence before the Commission. We were very courteously received and suggested certain amendments to the original memorandum which was prepared in 1961. The members of the deputation were questioned at great length by the President of the Commission, His Honour The Chief Justice, Mr. Cearbhaill 6 Dalaig, and by several other members of the Commission. It was very clear that the Commission was extremely interested in what we had to say and appreciated our suggestions. We are looking forward to the report of the Commission which will be published sometime in the future. Delays It is with regret that I must draw attention to considerable delays which occur in a large number of the Court and other offices dealing with legal matters. So far as can be ascertained the chief cause of these delays is the failure to obtain sufficient trained staff to deal with the work which keeps increasing. I do not for one moment wish to blame any particular office or any officials. On the contrary, I have no hesitation in saying that in all the Court offices, solicitors receive every possible courtesy and help but the fact remains that when officials retire it is not always possible to fill the vacancies with experienced qualified staff and whether the reason for this is that the salaries offered are not sufficiently attractive nowadays or whether there are other reasons, I do not know. Delays are very irritating so far as our profession is concerned and it is the general public which suffers most. They, of course, are inclined to blame solicitors for delays in connection with any legal work when the truth of the matter is that the major delays are caused by the time it takes to deal with matters in the Court and other offices. I certainly do not think it right that the Civil Service should be asked to under take additional functions at considerable cost to the taxpayer when the work can be performed efficiently as part of a pro fessional service and if it was found possible to fill vacancies which occur through the death or retirement of competent officials this would, I believe, remove a lot of the delays in legal matters of which the public and our profession complain. Meeting of International Bar Association The meeting of the International Bar Association was held this year in Mexico City from the 25th July to the znd August. The Law Society of England and Wales chartered a plane from London to Mexico to take most of the European delegates. I represented the Society at this conference. The President of Mexico attended the formal opening of the conference and later in the week invited all the delegates and guests to a reception in the National Palace. The Mexican Government made available a very substantial grant to ensure its success and the lawyers of Mexico City deserve the greatest credit for the excellence of their organisation. Their task was a difficult one but they dealt with it effectively and with the assistance of wives, relations and friends of their members and a large number of university students, they were able to staff fully the many offices dealing with such matters as the registration of delegates, the issuing of programmes and lickets for the various functions, the provision of coffee and soft drinks to all persons attending the conference and the provision of a huge staff to deal with the simultaneous translations of the various speeches and addresses at the conference itself. A special programme for the wives and families of the delegates was also prepared. This included a costume show of typical Mexican costume, a visit to four of the colonial homes in San Angel, a visit to the National Institute of Protection of Childhood and a visit to the Pyramids, to mention

but a few, and in addition all the delegates and their wives and families were invited to a performance of Mexican folklore ballet at the Palace of Fine Arts. Finally, the Jockey Club of Mexico invited all the delegates and visitors to the races held at the American Hippodrome and subsequently to a cocktail party at the Jockey Club Mexicano. Mr. John Carrigan and his wife were the only people from Ireland who made the long journey to Mexico and his knowledge of procedure gained at previous conferences was an enormous help to me. All the delegates and their wives were invited to dinner at least once during the week of the conference to the home of either a lawyer or some other well known citizen of Mexico City and it would be quite impossible to exaggerate the hospitality which was extended to everyone. Mr. Loyd Wright who has been the President of the Inter national Bar Association for the past ten years attended the Annual Meeting at which he tendered his resignation for domestic reasons and this resignation was accepted with great regret. Earlier in the year there had been extended to a large number of the delegates an invitation from the Los Angeles Bar Association to spend four days in Los Angeles as the guests of the Los Angeles Bar Association and sixty of the delegates accepted this invitation and we were all put up in the homes of Los Angeles lawyers and their families. A programme was arranged to cover those four days and this included a visit to the Los Angeles Courts, lunching with a very large number of judges, a visit to Disneyland and to some of the principal motion picture studios. Our short stay in Los Angeles concluded with a dinner given by three of the Los Angeles lawyers and to summarise this short trip, I would like to say that no words could describe the hospitality which was made available for all of us during our stay. I would also like to put on record our thanks to Mr. Loyd Wright and Mr. Glendon Tremaine, the secretary of the Los Angeles Bar Association. We left Mexico City on our return journey in the chartered plane on August izth and arrived the same evening in New York. Later that evening, we attended the reception and ball given in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel by the American Bar Association. Mr. Walter Craig, the President of the American Bar Association, and his wife had extended invitations to us and this was a very memorable function. There were, approximately, 7,500 people present. The venue of the next meeting of the International Bar Association which will be held in 1966 has not yet been settled but it will almost certainly be somewhere in Europe and will take place during the months of July or August. The new president is Dr. jur Bernt Hjejle, who has agreed to act as president for a period of two years. Once more I would like to remind you all that attendance at these conferences is open to all members of the Incorporated Law Society. The Succession Bill As you are aware a Succession Bill was introduced in July of this year and I had intended to speak very fully regarding the Bill. However, circumstances made it necessary for the Council to call for a special meeting of the profession to discuss it and on Thursday, the zgth October, the meeting was held here in the Solicitors' Buildings. It was very well attended and at least one representative of every bar association in the country was present. The personal views of members and in some cases the views of the bar associations which were represented were fully expressed and finally the meeting passed a unanimous resolution approving of the action which the Council had taken. The day after the meeting a deputation from our Society had a long interview with Mr. Brian Lenihan, the Minister for Justice, regarding two memoranda which had been submitted to him by the Council.