The Gazette 1971

deal of research is required. Although we in this country have done nothing in this direction, and, indeed, are not presently organised to do it, we can gain some cold comfort from the fact that, apart from the American Bar Foundation, an independent legal research organi- sation which conducts research at the request of the American Bar Association, it would appear that little or nothing has been done elsewhere. There is a further consideration which I think we should not overlook. Practising lawyers are, after all, only a component element in a production line. The product is the administration of Justice produced through an institutionalised organic structure embrac- ing the Legislature, the Courts and Administrative Agencies, using manpower composed of legislators, Judges, bureaucrats, appointed officials and practising lawyers. I have never understood why the concept of con- tinuing education and training should be confined to practising lawyers. I see no reason why civil servants who participate in the design and administration of the law and Judges who interpret and adjudicate upon it should be regarded as immune from the need for up- dating their knowledge and skills. To find out what we ought to be doing and to make the best use of our available resources we need research in order to identify problem areas, assess their incidence and quantification, run pilot schemes and plan future action. Institute of Professional Legal Studies necessary The Ormrod Report suggests the setting-up of an Institute of Professional Legal Studies to co-ordinate, organise and promote projects in all fields of continuing training for the legal profession. I believe that some such body is urgently needed here, and I would extend its activities to embrace law reform and the whole spectrum of the legal system. I am addressing these remarks to you today as new- comers to the profession because I feel that it is impor- tant that you should be fully alerted to the problems facing the profession, and that you should realise the need for active participation in the work of your local Bar Associations and of the Society. We need your concern and your help. You have youth and energy. You have a unique opportunity to enhance the image and prestige of the profession as a positive force for good in the community. You must bear in mind that you are a representative not a delegate. You may be retained by an individual client to serve his interests, but you have a prior retainer to promote and secure the administration of Justice, the end of which is the preservation of the dignity of the individual in a free society. The Harvard School of Law formula which is used upon the conferring of the degree in Law includes the words : "ready to aid in the shaping and application of those wise restraints that make men free". Today, I commend those words to you. The following new Solicitors were then presented with Certificates : Owen M. Binchy, B.C.L., N.U.I., Knights Lodge, Charleville, Co. Cork; Bryan C. Brophy, The Orchard, Cross Avenue, Blackrock, Co. Dublin; Deirdre Mary Casey, B.C.L., Cusack Road, Ennis, Co. Clare; William Harrison Clarke, B.C.L., N.U .I. , Rockfield House, Cloghan, Birr, Co. Offaly; John J. Corcoran, 11 Lord Edward St., Ballina, Co. Mayo; Michael M. T.

so far as we have catered for specialisation, we have done so in an entirely pragmatic fashion by the growth of large partnerships in city areas wherein some of the partners choose their own speciality in a given aspect of the law. In many instances this has developed be- cause it has been deemed an economic necessity in order to meet the problem of ever-increasing overheads and to provide greater efficiency in office management. The desire to retain clients whose interests embrace a wide range of special problems is, no doubt, also an affective factor. It would, however, be an unhappy development if a great and learned professor were to acquire the raiment and trappings of a business measuring worth by receipts, rather than by its contribution to the law as one of the institutions of our free society as a social force and as an instrument of social justice for all. Need for Specialisation We have no system of registration or formal certifi- cation of legal specialists comparable to medicine. With us specialisation is a self-imposed limitation without any public proclamation. One of the main objections is, of course, concern with the ethics of solicitation. There is also the danger of knowing more and more about less and less. We must strive against getting lost in the wilderness of our own field of vision and losing the art of communication. To whatever degree, and in whatever way specialisa- tion is likely to develop, whether by gradual evolution or formal adoption, we cannot ignore the fact that our education and training calls for a complete overhaul if we are to effectively meet future needs. As now constituted, a curriculum model devised for an era in which every lawyer was in fact a generalist, private in nature, oriented towards litigation and fed exclusively on a diet of "lawyers law" is, in my view inadequate to meet the demands of new and intricate law practice. It is a curious paradox that whilst the law and lawyers have of recent years been the target of much criticism, society is turning more and more to the law to solve its most serious social problems. Continuous Education and Training necessary The recent Ormrod Report on legal education in the United Kingdom commenting upon the work of the legal profession remarks with insight "the most striking feature of the legal profession is the enormous width of its spectrum, both in function and subject matter, combined with the relatively narrow limits within which many individual practitioners actually operate". As to training, the Report makes this observation— "The range of the subject-matter of the law is so great that no system of education and training before quali- fication could possibly cover the whole of it, except in an utterly superficial and useless manner. The process of acquiring professional knowledge and skills is con- tinuous throughout the lawyer's working life." The problem of continuing education and training throughout the practitioner's career is one which I fear will overtax our present resources. At the moment, our only available resource is manpower supplied by the voluntary efforts of busy practitioners. This I believe can never produce satisfactory results. Before we can hope to suggest some means of attempting to reach a solution to this problem a great

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