The Gazette 1964/67

elimination of strict settlements, once so popular, and to a decrease in trust business, but at the same time they have imposed the need to con sider the tax position in almost every kind of legal transaction and especially in the disposition of estates. The effects of company and commercial de velopment, the extension of international trade and the vastly increased speed of communication and tempo of life have created a demand for a very different type of family lawyer from that of earlier days, peacefully engaged as he was very largely upon settlements, trusts and the admin istration of estates. Legislation controlling town and country planning, the popular appeal of hire purchase schemes arid the establishment of administrative tribunals are but a few of the factors that have widened the scope of legal activity. The considerable breakdown in family life and responsibility has led not only to a great increase in divorce business and ancillary reliefs, but to a great rise in juvenile crime, and two major wars have also made their contribution towards the increase in crime generally. The advent of the motor car, made increasingly faster and, because of full employment, now al most universally owned, has resulted in the court lists being choked with actions for personal in juries. Where will this lead when, as the car replaced the horse, so the plane of spaceship re places the family car? Will the introduction of some provision for 'absolute liability' on the part of the motorist effect a meteoric fall in a number of 'personal injury' cases for trial? Meanwhile the policy has been to withdraw judges more and more frequently from their normal tasks to preside overy royal commissions and public inquiries. In consequence, partly, no doubt, the number of judges steadily increases and changes in practice and procedure are made to meet an altered situation in the courts. In civil litigation juries have in effect been replaced by a judge alone. The clear tendency is generally to decentralise the business of the courts, and experiments are being made by mechanisation to speed up the trial of actions with the ultimate object, presumably, of providing an early hearing on a fixed day, which will avoid waste of time by litigants, witnesses and lawyers alike in waiting to come on for trial. The creation of the welfare state itself has had a major effect upon the public outlook cowards their rights and duties. Obligations previously re garded as being family ones are now considered to be those of the taxpayer in general. If anyone 120

in this paper to forecast both the probably and possible shape of events as they may develop over the next forty to fifty years. Except where otherwise indicated, the pattern outlines will be that of the legal profession in England, and the developments forecast are an amalgam of what he thinks will happen, what may happen and, perhaps, even what should happen, however un likely this day seem at the present time. The extent to which civilization has advanced or regressed throughout the world today may be gauged in each country by the respect paid to the law and its administration. The legal profession, which is largely responsible for that administra tion, must therefore continue to command public respect and to that end must be ready, at all times, to meet the public's requirements for a legal service. These requirements change and will continue to change as social and economic changes take place, new scientific discoveries are made and world conditions alter, and it is therefore incum bent upon each successive generation of lawyers from time to time to take stock of its position and make sure that the services which it offers are those that are required and that the next generation of lawyers is trained in the appropriate fields of legal activity. The trends from which one may deduce wnat the future pattern of the profession is likely to be derive from a wide variety of factors, some of which influence the nature of the legal business to be done, others the volume of that business and yet others the deployment of lawyers upon it and the organisation of their firms. Some Factors The redistribution of wealth, the improved standards of general education and ever-growing multiplicity and complexity of the laws, coupled with their incursion into the lives of the ordinary man and woman, have created over comparatively recent years a very substantial new body of clients, actual or potential. The business of the legal profession is as to about nine-tenths concerned with matters af fecting the daily life of the community ou'.side the courts, and the remaining one-tenth which attracts the great public attention, is litigation and criminal business. The comparatively few great landowners of the early days of the century have been replaced by countless thousands of home-owners, following upon large estate development schemes and the erection of hugh blocks of flats. The steep rise in and the spread of taxation have led to the virtual