The Gazette 1984

GAZETTE

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1984

Correspondence

controversial nature and I would instance Mrs. Flynn's letter dated 25th May which appeared in the May 1983 issue. I would therefore invite the Chairman of the Company Law Committee to respond publicly to the matters raised in this letter.

The Editor

18 November, 1983

Law Society Gazette, Blackhall Place,

Yours sincerely, Paul Guinness, Solicitor, Maxwell Weldon & Darley, 19 & 20 Lr. Baggot St., Dublin 2.

Dublin 7. Dear Sir,

I refer to your letter of 9 November, 1983 on the question of accommodation available in this branch for solicitors, who wish to discuss clients' affairs with our officials. There is in fact an interview room on the second floor, which is available for such purposes. As it serves the entire branch, you will appreciate that at times it may be occupied when required. In such case the lobby of the public office is used or, if the solicitor so requests, the interview may take place at the official's desk if this would give more privacy.

The Editor,

6th January, 1984

Law Society Gazétte, Blackhall Place,

Dublin 7. Dear Sir,

Re: The Society of Young Solicitors. Spring Seminar 1984

Yours sincerely, M. P. O'Connor, Assistant Secretary, Capital Taxes Branch, Office of the Revenue Commissioners, Dublin Castle, Dublin 2.

On behalf of the Society of Young Solicitors I would like to remind Members that the Society's Spring Seminar will take place in the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis on the Week-end of the 7th and 8th of April next. At the date of writing the Programme is not entirely finalised. However, Max Abrahamson, Solicitor, will be lecturing on Arbitration, Daniel O'Keeffe, B.L., will be lecturing on Modern Banking Practice. There will also be lectures on Divorce Law, and on the avoidance of Profes- sional Negligence Claims within a Solicitor's practice. Booking Forms should be enclosed with this issue of the Gazette. Further Forms are available from the Law Society or the Writer. Claire M. Callanan, (On behalf of the Society of Young Solicitors,) Gerrard, Scallan & O'Brien, Solicitors, 69/71 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2. Victorian Motorists in Dublin I would be much obliged for information concerning the lives and times of Lawyers who were motorists in Dublin during the period to 1905. Who was the first Lawyer to own a motor car here? The cultural collision between the horse and the automobile emerged into the Law Courts and was well reported in "The Irish Motorist" even before the Motor Car Act of 1903. Yours truly, Cornelius F. Smith, Chartered Accountant, Modeshill, 34 Stillorgan Grove, Blackrock, Co. Dublin. The Editor, 14th December, 1983 Law Society Gazette, Blackhall Place, Dublin 7. Dear Sir,

The Editor,

22nd December 1983

Law Society Gazette, Blackhall Place,

Dublin 7. Dear Sir,

Now that the Company/Commercial Law Referral Service mentioned in the April/May issue of the Gazette has been in operation for a period of six months it would be of considerable interest, particularly in a time of recession, to members of the profession outside the 14 firms of Solicitors mentioned in the article to learn how the scheme has worked in practice, both from the view- point of the 14 firms operating the Referral Service and from the viewpoint of the firms referring business to them. I wrote a letter to you, Sir, on the 1st June which was intended for publication in the Gazette. I have since understood from you that you felt that it was prudent for the Editorial Board to inform the Company Law Committee of this letter and I can readily appreciate the reasons for this. My letter was intended to complain, not about the principle of the Referral Service as such, but about the way in which it has been sprung on the profession through the medium of the Gazette without prior consultation with the profession. In my view, the original publication of the article (which was then repeated) could present serious problems for the profession as a form of public advertising for business by the 14 firms, even if unintentional, especially as the Gazette is available to and widely consulted by persons outside the profession. Furthermore, the article itself contained a clear inference that the listed firms had some unspecified expertise in Company and Commercial Law which the firms not in the list did not possess or were too indolent to apply. In general the Gazette is not slow to publish correspon- dence of interest to the profession which is also of a

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