The Gazette 1974

and that reciprocity in this regard from their colleagues should apply. This is a difficult question but there is a clear obligation on Solicitors in this regard and the taking on of work which is subsequently not per- formed because a Solicitor has neither the experience nor capacity to perform it is the root cause of some of the most consistent complaints against the Solicitors' profession. Before concluding, there is one other obligation which in this instance you owe as a duty to your professional colleagues and that is not to indulge in undercharging as a means of unfairly attracting business which is simply another form of touting. Any Solicitor who indulges in this type of activity is compromising him- self seriously with the prospective clients and becomes their virtual hostage before he even starts to act for them. From the client's point of view, the invariable experience is that a cut price fee involves a cut price job resulting in a considerable diminution of the service given. This brings not only the Solicitor in question but the entire profession into serious disrepute. Every man is worthy of his hire and this applies particularly to the Solicitors' profession and it is not necessary to go into the reasons why Solicitors need to be adequately remunerated for their services. It is an economic fact of costing that undercharging results in the entire opera- tion of the Solicitors' practise being uneconomic and thus in effect unremunerative. Never forget that your professional colleagues are amongst your best guarantees of your survival and you can rely on them with very few exceptions to render you whatever assistance you may require and to help you over any difficulties that you may encounter either through inadvertance or inexperience. In addition, the services of the Secretariat of the Incorporated Law Society are fully at your disposal and I would finally strongly advise you to become members of the Incor- porated Law Society of Ireland whose membership and services are very well worth the modest annual subscription. You should also join your local Bar Asso- ciation and involve yourself responsibly in the affairs of your local community, which as a member of the Solicitors' profession you will already be regarded in somewhat of a privileged position although you may not fully appreciate this fact at first. You should also join the Society of Young Solicitors which runs Seminars and supplies transcripts of lectures which are now an invaluable and integral part of the continuing process of the Irish Solicitors' education. I would also strongly encourage you to give every assistance to the Free Legal Advice Centres known as FLAG whose magnificent work in the absence of a Civil Legal Aid Scheme and adequate Social Advice Services is not even yet fully appreciated and their efforts and their activities depend to a considerable extent on the assis- vidual members of the Solicitors' profession and on whom they voluntarily depend. It is also most desirable that you become a member of the Solicitors' Benevolent Association which has for so long done so much for the less fortunate members of the profession and their dependants. It only remains for me to hope that your patience and attention will be rewarded by a long and fruitful career in one of the noblest professions which I hope it will soon be your privilege to practise in the service of your community and your country.

compelled to reveal any confidential information or communication that he may have obtained from, for or on behalf of his client. This right of privilege creates the protection that a Solicitor needs to enable him to preserve this essential secrecy in regard to Solicitor and client communications and information. It can be com- pared to the seal of confession in the Catholic religion and in fact it has been argued that the Law regards the privilege of a Solicitor concerning his Solicitor/ Client relationship as even more sacrosanct than the seal of confession whether it be under the Civil or under the moral law. Thus even when giving evidence in Court, a Solicitor is entitled to claim privilege as justification for refusal to answer a question that might involve his having to reveal confidential information obtained from a client in the course of a Solicitor and client relationship. Edmund Burke once said that the practice of Law, while it broadens the intellect, narrows the mind. I have often given much thought to the full implications of this remark and while it is open to various inter- pretation I feel that it nevertheless serves to remind us of the necessity that, as practising Solicitors, we should involve ourselves in the continuing process of education. While it is highly desirable to endeavour to familiarise oneself as a practising Solicitor with all important new pieces of legislation, the simplest method of keeping up to date with current developments in the Law is to subscribe to at least one, and preferably several, of the available Law Journals. Each member of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland receives the Society's monthly Gazette, the scope and content of which have happily undergone considerable improve- ment under its Editor, Mr. Golum Gavan Duffy. A Solicitor's obligation to keep himself fully informed of all new developments and changes in the Law, parti- cularly in the context of Ireland's membership of the European Economic Gommunity and the current pro- gramme of Law Reform, can be discharged by atten- dance at the Seminars and Study weekends organised by the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland and the Society of Young Solicitors and other organisations which from time to time organise Seminars on specific legal topics. I am personally convinced that the Solicitor's pro- fession is about to undergo very considerable expansion and steps are now being taken to ensure that the system of legal education is adequate to meet the demands of such expansion and the new areas of work which will properly be the reserve of the legal pro- fession if we equip ourselves by our education and training as I feel we must, to handle it. Notwithstand- ing this projected expansion and the increase even in the range of our existing activities and services and the public's requirement for us to handle these it must be remembered that we are only some 1,500 Solicitors who have traditionally been rightly regarded as a con- servative profession not given to specialisation. Not- withstanding the lack of scope for specialisation for various economic and technical reasons apart from limited specialisation in the larger cities there is a very firm obligation on Solicitors not to take on or attempt to perform work for which they have neither aptitude nor experience and while it is appreciated that this may be a problem in the remoter rural areas it is highly desirable that Solicitors should refer particular types of work to colleagues experienced in that type of work

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