The Gazette 1967/71

member of the Council of the Law Society of Scotland. Married with three sons, his home address is Shepherd House, Inveresk, Midlothian.

Disciplinary Committee The President of the High Court has appointed Thomas V. O'Connor to be a member of the Disciplinary Committee. 9th January 1969: The President in the chair, also present Messrs Desmond J. Collins, James R. C. Green, Francis J. Lanigan, John Carrigan, Gerald Y. Goldberg, Robert McD. Taylor, Bruce St. J. Blake, Gerald Hickey, James W. O'Donovan, Augustus Cullen, Rory O'Connor, John J. Nash, Desmond Moran, Peter E. O'Connell, Joseph Dundon, W. A. Osborne, P. C. Moore, Brendan A. McGrath, John Maher, William M. Cahir, Gerard M. Doyle, Peter D. M. Prentice, T. V. O'Connor, Patrick Noonan, Ralph J. Walker, Christopher Hogan. Committee on Reformatory and Industrial Schools At the request of the Department of Education the Council appointed a sub-committee to report to this committee. John B. Jermyn, Patrick Noonan and W. A. Osborne were appointed to the sub-committee. Classified Telephone Directory | The Council approved of a report of the Privileges Committee disapproving of the use of bold type by solicitors in this directory. i Criminal Justice Bill ! The Council appointed a sub-committee to con sider and report on the contents of this Bill with .a view to making a public statement as to its effect on the rights and liberties of the citizens.; A sub-committee was appointed to consider the mat ter; the following were appointed to the sub committee: Gerald Y. Goldberg, Bruce St. J. Blake, Rory O'Connor. THE FUTURE OF THE PROFESSION by CHARLES A. FRASER, W.S. Charles Annand Frascr was born on 16th October 1928. He was educated at Hamilton Academy, his father being the parish minister there. He did two years of National Service as a Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery. Thereafter he was at Edinburgh University, graduating in Arts and Law. He ap prenticed with Messrs Baillie and Gifford, W.S. He has been a partner in the firm of Messrs W. and J. Burness, W.S., since June 1956. He is a

PART I

Lawyers may, tended to be slightly conservative, perhaps more concerned with preserving their status than being vitally interested in t':e expansion of their functions; more defen sive than aggressive; and always over-anxious lest any change should alter the character of the pro fession which they have chosen; a profession which has remained substantially unaffected by change over many generations. To be conservative and to res st change in the coming years will not be possible. Change may well be forced upon the profession from outside if it is not accepted from within. Recently the National Board for Prices and Incomes Report Number 54 on the Remun eration of Solicitors made some valuable propo sals. The Monopolies Commission's Report on the Professions is awaited with interest. Perhaps it is as well to summarise briefly some of the obvious changes in society that are taking place around us and which must, in time, affect the practice of the law. Wealth is more widely spread; the population of the world is increasing at a frightening speed; families are more mobile in that where, formerly, several generations in one family might all live and work in the one area, now, promotion within large groups demands that employees move from one part of the country to another not only once but possibly several times during their working lives; criticism is not spared; previously accepted ideas are now challenged and the public wants to know "Why?"; a consequence of the social welfare state has been the huge increase in the annual amount of complex legis lation affecting the life of virtually every citizen; legislation which was formerly complicated but understood by some including most lawyers is now unbelievably complicated and understood by few —not even by many lawyers; the modern indus trial state, as Professor Galbraith observed | in his Reith Lectures, seems to require that business is organised in massive groups with a significant effect on the communities in which such industrial giants operate; and lastly and probably most im portant, the change which may in time have the most dramatic affect on the legal profession, namely, the invention of the computer. These are but some of the changes that are affecting society and must consequently affect the practice of law. Perhaps therefore we should now 90 in the past, have