The Gazette 1967/71

was fixed at this figure in 1852 and has not since been increased. The time has come when the financial position of the Society and the distribution of its resources and activities should be examined having regard to the requirements of the future and the increasing part which the Society must play in enabling practitioners to carry on practice to the greatest advantage for their clients and themselves. In this statement I shall give a brief account of the more important activities of the Society during the past six months under the following headings: solicitors apprentices who may expect to be admitted within the next four or five years). (c) General Matters. in the somewhat unique position of having public responsibility to ensure that the standards of conduct, professional efficiency and integrity are main– tained at the highest level. It is in the interests of the profession as well as the public that these standards should be maintained. We enjoy privileges in certain fields of professional business. In return we must see that we discharge our duties adequately. Without a central professional organisation appointed by the profession itself standards of conduct and integrity would inevitably fall. It is this sense of public responsibility which distin– guishes a profession from purely commercial and indus– trial organisations. It is equally important that industry and commerce should maintain high standards of integ– rity and efficiency but the regulation of these standards is left to the individual trader. In the profession there is corporate responsibility through the governing body of the profession to see that every member is conscious of the standards expected of him and to enforce these standards by appropriate action taken by the profession itself. This duty which rests upon the profession is the counterpart of the statutory privileges which it enjoys. A decline in professional standards would affect the whole community and as regards the legal profession would have serious effects on the standards of the judiciary and the public legal administration upon which public order and the rights of every citizen so greatly depends. The judiciary is recruited from the legal profession and the high standards of integrity and independence shown by the Bench in this country since the foundation of the State reflects the standards of conduct imposed on private practitioners from which the Bench is drawn. (a) Services to the Public. (b) Services to the Profession (including The Society is In November last the Council made special regulations entitled the Solicitors Accounts (Amendment No. 2) Regulations 1966 providing for the lodgment by each practising solicitor with the Society of a Certificate by an Accountant each year. The accountant must certify that the solicitor is complying with the provisions of the Solicitors Accounts Regulations in regard to the keeping of proper office books of account written up to date and lodging all clients monies and trust monies to the appropriate designated bank account kept specially for that purpose. The regulations were made under Section 66 of the Solicitors Act, 1954, following a postal ballot taken by the Council which revealed that about 90 per cent of the practitioners who returned voting papers were in favour of the proposal. The machinery pre- Solicitors Accounts Regulations 1967

wreck and was probably defective when the client bought it. Member enquired whether he was bound by his undertaking and whether the client was entitled to repudiate the authority which he gave to member to pay the sum of £150, being a minor at the time of the authority. The Council on a report from a committee stated that on the facts member was bound by his undertaking. They express no view on the second question which was a matter of law. THE ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING The Ordinary General Meeting of the Society was held at the Imperial Hotel Cork on Saturday, 20th May 1967. The President, Mr. Patrick O'Donnell, took the chair. The notice convening the meeting and the minutes of the last Ordinary General Meeting which has been circulated was by permission taken as read. Mr. Sean McCarthy, the Lord Mayor of Cork, and Mr. John Jermyn, the President of the South– ern Law Association, addressed the meeting and welcomed the Society to Cork. The President thanked the Lord Mayor and Mr. Jermyn. The President as chairman of the meeting nominated the following members of the Society as the scrutineers of the ballot for the election of the Council to be held on 16th November 1967 : John R. McC. Blakeney, Thomas Jackson (senior), Brendan P. McCormack, Roderick J. Tierney and Alexander J. McDonald. The President addressing the meeting said : last Ordinary General Meeting the following members of the Society died and I would like to express our sincere condolence with their families and business associates : Martin Kelly, County Registrar, Kilkenny; Michael Noyk, Solicitor, Dublin; Patrick J. Flynn, County Regis– trar, Roscommon; Francis A. Gibney, Solicitor, Dublin; J. Allan Osborne, Solicitor, Milford; Bernard McDer- mott, Solicitor, Ballybofey; William T. Nicholl, Solicitor, Dublin; Kevin Nugent, Solicitor, Clonmel; Dermot McDowell, Solicitor, Dublin; Mrs. Beatrice Elyan, Solici– tor, Cork; Michael J. Dunne, Solicitor, Dublin; Aubrey R. Walker, Solicitor, Dublin; Dr. Joseph Jackson Wolfe, Herts., England. Since Mr. Taylor addressed the Ordinary General Meeting of the Society in November last an increasing burden of work has fallen upon the Council and the officials of the Society. It has been necessary to increase the Society's staff to deal with this work. Problems of office accommodation have also arisen and both the activities and physical accommodation of the Society in the Solicitors Buildings are stretched to their full capa– city. The members of the profession are given extremely good value for the nominal subscription of £1 per annum. In passing it may be noted that the subscription Ladies and Gentlemen, since our