The Gazette 1989

JANUARY 1989

GAZETTE

From the President . . .

accountancy firms for many years past. Those are just a few thoughts on the way in which I see things developing and I should be most interested to have the views of any of you who would care to write to me on the subject. We have recently brought into force new regulations permitting the profession to market its services in a manner appropriate to the last few years of the 20th Century. If we develop the con- fidence to market and to deliver these services to the public, making full use of modern technology so that we deliver such services as efficiently and as cost effectively as possible, then I believe professional skill, integrity and independence will continue to bring rewards in the practice of our fine profession. • MAURICE R. CURRAN, President. CORRECTION - DECEMBER GAZETTE The following is a reprint of the Profile of the Senior Vice-President of the Society which appeared in the December issue of the Gazette. In that issue Mr. Margetson was described as being "current" Chairman of a number of com- mittees of which he was "former" Chairman. The mistake is regretted. SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT 1988/89 Ernest J. Margetson Ernest J. Margetson was educated at the High School and Trinity College Dublin and was admitted as a Solicitor in 1951. He is a partner in the firm of Matheson Ormsby & Prentice. He was Hon- orary Secretary of the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association and also President of that Association. He was elected to the Council in 1974 and has served as Chairman of the Professional Purposes Committee, Compensation Fund Committee, Registrar's Committee, and Finance Committee. He was Junior Vice President of the Society for the year 1982/83.

must find some sanction which will be seen by the profession to protect solicitors who use the referral service. I am not aware that there actually has been any poaching of clients, but if there has been or if it should happen in the future, then the offending firm must be dealt with by the Law Society. Perhaps the publication of a defaulting firm's name in the Gazette plus withdrawal of that firm's name from the list of those eligible to receive referrals might be sufficient sanction. In the United Kingdom and in Australia, national federations of firms are growing up and I believe we will have to develop linkages whereby practices which are operating independently on a local scale will combine either by linking to some of the larger practices or by forming national partnerships to provide, both an information service and a delivery of legal services here and abroad, and in particular in Brussels. The profession is already familiar with the Town Agent concept which works very effectively and there is a confidence in that system throughout the country. Is there any reason why we cannot arrange something similar in relation to referrals? John Temple Lang in his Paper on 1992 at the recent Conference in Trinity College suggested that it will be important to have access to legal expertise in all the Member States of the Community and that it will be important for Irish firms to become members of the various Law Clubs that are springing up, whereby firms in different countries are joining together pooling their expertise and making their services available on a cross-border basis. It may be that if we can apply the Town Agency concept to the referral service, it will be easier to establish the necessary continental links. The English Law Society has recently decided to permit their solicitors to go into partnership with lawyers in other jurisdictions which points another way forward. It seems clear that in the not too distant future there will be large cross-border international legal partnerships following the trail that has been blazed by the

This issue of the Gazette is devoted to European matters and to 1992 in particular. I am pleased to be able to tell you that the Annual Conference to be held in the Hotel Europe in Killarney between the 4th/7th May will also be devoted to this topic. John Hume, M.E.P., Peter Sutherland, S.C., and Conor McCarthy, Chairman of Coras Trachtala and of Ryans Hotels pic, have accepted invitations to speak. I would like as many of you as possible to attend what should be a most interesting meeting: put the date in your diary now! One matter which gives me great concern is how we can assist the profession as a whole to deliver to their clients the necessary expert- ise in the whole developing field of community law. It seems to me that the referral system that has been set up in recent years in the Company law, Conveyancing and Taxation fields has had only limited success and has not been as popular or as heavily used as it should have been. I perceive the main reason for this to be a fear of the Solicitor who should be using the service that he will lose his client to the bigger firm to which the referral is made. This should not happen as the referral rules are intended to provide protection so that a firm to whom a client is referred is not to act for that client for a period of years after the referral in any other matter without the consent of the referring solicitor. However, it may be that this is not felt to give sufficient protection and that we

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