The Gazette 1979

GAZETTE

SEPTEMBER 1979

claims. In the coming year, it is proposed to make a determined approach to such practices. In the case of new practices the Registrar's Committee is recommending a minimum cover of £150,000. (ii) Superannuation Scheme: The fund now stands at close on £1,000,000. It is satisfying to be able to report that the initial subscribers to the scheme have doubled their investment. The fund is now in the process of acquiring a property investment and once this is achieved it will have a full spread of investments. The brochure detailing the benefits and options under the scheme is being up-dated with a view to a further membership drive next February-March. (iii) Company Formation: Member satisfaction can be gauged from the increased demands placed on the service. Efforts to expand into other service areas did not meet with success. (iv) Saleable Forms and Publications: The Society continues to make available standard forms for Contract, Requisitions and Building Agreements, together with the books published by the Public Relations Committee. (v) Employment Register: The Employment Register was much used during the year. As might be expected, the greater demand came from newly-qualified solicitors, but, in addition, success was achieved in some situations involving more-experienced members of the profession and practice amalgamations. 2.15 Staff: Due to increased activity, the staff of the Society was expanded by the appointment of Mr. Patrick Quinn as Training Officer and Miss Mary Buckley as Assistant Librarian. Mr. Nicholas Moore succeeded Mr. Brendan Twomey as Education Officer. Miss Anne Kane was appointed Premises Manager and was succeeded as Personal Secretary to the Director General by Miss Mary C. O'Connor. Though adver- tised on two occasions, the Society failed in its efforts to fill the post of Director of Profes- sional Services, as recommended by last year's Annual General Meeting. The Society has now sought the assistance of consultants in the filling of the post. 3.1 This year has shown considerable progress in the rationalisation of a system wljich will enable complaints to be speedily dealt with and which will enable the Society to see that Solicitors' Accountants' Certificates and Practising Certificates are kept up to date. 3.2 The amount of paper coming into the Law Society is undiminished by way of complaints. In the year to date 639 complaints were received. We are deeply indebted to Mr. Basil Doyle for excellent work in sorting out the initial complaints, many of which are of a nature which are not genuine complaints or ones which do not fall within the ambit of the Registrar's Committee. The Interview Board functioned satisfactorily and a lot of the complaints which were not dealt with in initial correspondence were cleared at Interview Board level. 3.3 Complaints were considered by the Registrar's Committee during the year and most of these were satisfactorily dealt with and fourteen complaints were referred by the Registrar's Committee to the Disciplinary Committee for further action. Members will appreciate the vital importance of replying to correspondence received from the Law Society if a complaint is made against them. If they do not, they have only themselves to blame if it subsequently appears at Interview Board or Registrar's Committee level. Again it must be stressed that a number of complaints are generally made against a small number of members of the profession whose names appear again and again before the Committee. The Committee is doing its utmost to impress upon the solicitors the importance of keeping their work up to date and if they are behind, then they should consider ás a matter of urgency restructuring their staff so as to bring their work up to date. Having received numerous expressions of thanks from members of the public making genuine complaints, it is hoped that a considerable improvement has now been achieved in the speed in which complaints are handled and again the Society is indebted to Mr. Basil Doyle and Mr. Fintan Burke who are dealing principally with this area of the work of the Committee. 3.4 The Committee has been particularly active in the question of Accountants' Certificates and Practising Certificates. The Committee were disturbed to note that at the 1st March 1979 414 firms out of a total of almost 900 were more than one year in arrears with their Accountant's Certificate. As a result a major drive has been made during the year and members whose certificates have been in arrears have been written to

REGISTRAR'S COMMITTEE

Thomas D. Shaw

Chairman

Andrew J. Donnelly Thomas J. Fhzpatrick John P. Hooper Carmd S. Killeen Patrick O'Connor Michael V. O'Mahony Laurence K. Shields Andrew F. Smyth Moya Quinlan

Thomas D. Shaw Chairman

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