The Gazette 1955-58

final decision in this matter will lie with the Council' of the Society but the members of the Society may rest assured that no effort will be spared to devise a system which will conduce in the highest degree to train future solicitors in a way which will maintain and if possible raise the traditions of the past. The Council are also engaged in drafting Pro– fessional practice, conduct, and discipline Regula– tions under section 71 of the Act. It is not the intention of the Council to seek to provide anything in the nature of a code of professional conduct or what is known in the United States as " canons of professional ethics." Good sense and good taste and the training received from his master will usually be the inner voice which will tell a solicitor what is right and wrong in matters of this kind. We all know that we must not advertise or solicit business or commit any of the breaches of pro– fessional etiquette which may be summarised under the heading of attracting business unfairly. In the modern world of high pressure advertising cam– paigns, sales boosting, and public relations systems, which are no doubt appropriate to commerce and in that sphere of benefit to the public, the professions, and particularly the legal profession, have held.fast to the ancient tradition of independence, and the accepted rules of professional conduct are the same to-day as they were 50 or 100 years ago. The Council have been studying the regulations made by the Law Societies of other countries under provisions similar to those which are contained in the Solicitors' Act, 1954, and draft regulations have been prepared dealing with the main branches of professional conduct which it is thought will be of value both to the more experienced members of the profession and those starting in practice. I hope that substantial progress will have been made in this matter before the date of the next ordinary general meeting. The delay in the framing of new scales of District Court Costs following the increase in the jurisdiction of the District Court by the Courts of Justice Act, 1953, has caused considerable difficulty to both the profession and the public, but I understand that the new scales are likely to be published shortly. Delays in the various public Departments continue to engage the attention of the Council and represen– tations have been made where necessary to the Department or Minister concerned. It is the daily lot of the practising solicitor to have constant dealings with almost every Department of State and it is our experience that although the cost of public administration grows yearly the difficulty and delay in having business transacted continually increases. Whether this is due to the increasing difficulty and complexity of business, inadequate office organisation or accommodation, or some

dentures. The new Act enables the Council to make regulations .-.xtending this period to two years before the expiration of the term and the Council propose to make this regulation immediately. It will be in effect before the date of the next Irish examinations in July. I say that it is an important relief to appren– tices because there is little doubt that the strain of having to pass the Irish examination within one year or less before the date of the final examination is very heavy and exacting. I think I may say that the solicitors' final examination at the present time on account of the width of the curriculum is one of the most difficult examinations in the country to-day. The path of the student is so beset with examinations that I sometimes wonder whether we are turning out good examinees or good solicitors. The two things are not necessarily the same. In my view the term of 5 years, reduceable to 4 in certain circumstances, is too short for the amount of knowledge both in law and practice which a solicitor's apprentice must acquire to pass the Society's final examination. When you add to this the necessity of studying both oral and written Irish during this short period it will be realised that a solicitor's apprentice has a far more difficult task before him to-day than his predecessor had 50 years ago, when the Act of 1898 was in its infancy. It is therefore a substantial relief to a solicitor's apprentice to be able to take the second Irish examination one year earlier which will leave him two years to prepare himself for the Society's final examination. I think I may also say without disclosing any secrets that one of the matters which has been considered by the Court of Examiners is the advisa– bility of permitting an apprentice to take the Society's final examination in two parts. As you know under the existing regulations all the subjects must be passed at one sitting. I can see no reason why a solicitor's apprentice should be expected to acquire and retain in his head the sum total of legal know– ledge for the three days on which he attends the final examination. This to my mind is an example of the enslavement of our present educational system to examinations which after all are not an end, but merely a means towards an end. The present system of our professional examinations in my view leads to cramming and it would, I think, conduce to the better training of our future legal practitioners if apprentices could study various sections of the curriculum and sit for the appropriate parts of the examination at various stages of the course. The Society would be justified in considera– tion of this concession in insisting upon a high standard of competence at each examination. I think I have said enough to indicate the lines on which the Court of Examiners are thinking. The 5