The Gazette 1991

GAZETTE

SEPTEMBER 1991

Younger Members News

"Europe under one hat"?

advocats must obtain experience under an apprenticeship of approximately 3 years. Much of the conversation throughout the conference centred on the open market and 1992. All nationalities have agreed that the links between mainland Europe and Ireland and Britain will increase and therefore they were pleased to have made contact with our Law Society. It seems that all the nationalities present erroneously thought that we had a joint legal system with Britain. In this regard, the Europeans always contacted their British contemporaries for advice and actual handling of work even if, the subject matter was within the Irish jurisdiction. Therefore our presence in Holland assured direct contact with our Law Society in the future. The final evening saw the holding of a Gala Ball. The theme of the Conference was again very apparent in that all persons had to wear a hat for the evening. This proved to be a very enjoyable evening and the Dutch hospitality was superb. The Conference ended with a casual but sociable lunch on Sunday and many invitations were received by us to Conferences all over Europe. It is hoped that many of the delegates present will come to one of our Conferences here in Ireland. We have a list of all delegates' names in attendance in The Hague and we will be writing to them individually keeping them informed of future events in Ireland and giving them a contact number in the Law Society for any business matters which may arise. All in all, we must stress that attendance at such a Conference by Irish delegates is essential to promote the Irish Legal Profession, with the hope of creating new business in the future, and in particular coming up to the Single Market in 1992, which, as we all know is "hot on our heels".

THE SOCIETY OF YOUNG SOLICITORS 1991 AGM The Society of Yoiing Solicitors held its Annual General Meeting on the 6 July, 1991. The Minutes of the previous meeting were duly read and approved after which the following Officers were appointed for 1991/1992: CHAIRMAN: James McCourt VICE-CHAIRMAN: Owen O'Sullivan TREASURER: Paul White SECRETARY: Maureen Walsh PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER: Jennifer Blunden

"Europe under one hat"?.... theme of the Conference held in The Hague, Netherlands, from the 13th to the 16th of June last. The Conference was attended by Eva Tobin and Rosemarie Loftus on behalf of the Younger Members Committee of the Law Society. The Conference was attended by young lawyers from Holland, Rome, Germany, Italy, Belgium, U.S.A., England and Budapest. Everything centred around the annual closing ceremony of the legal year which took place in De, Groteclerk, Groenmarkt. This Ceremony was attended by 70 invited delegates together with other invited Dutch lawyers. The President of the Young Bar, M.B. Craemer, welcomed everybody and gave an intro- ductory speech and this was followed by the official announce- ment of the winner of the 1991 PLEA contest. This contest is held annually and attracts much attention in Holland. There was also a lecture given on the "Intellectual Property Law through the Ages" which was a very in- teresting overview of the evolution of the law in this area. After the ceremony an informal lunch was held where the delegates were introduced to each other and dis- cussed the differences between respective legal professions. It was noted with interest the fact that in Holland an advocat and procureur performs all legal duties. A procureur signs documents in Civil cases, makes Court applications and deals with formal matters, while an advocat is similar to our "Solicitor". An advocat may only work in the District in which he is admitted and therefore if an advocat from Amsterdam wishes to prepare a case for Rotterdam, he can do so, but he cannot run the case in Rotterdam himself and therefore must get a local procureur to do this. In The Hague there are very few Solicitors admitted to the legal profession every year and the figures range between 30 to 40 Solicitors. Like our system all

James McCourt The outgoing Chairman, Colin Sainsbury, then addressed the meeting. He paid tribute to Katharine Delahunt, a former Chairman who was retiring from the Committee after five years. A feature of her period as Chairman was the commencement of breakfast meetings for the sub- committees. The new Chairman, who had been a former Treasurer and Vice-Chairman, was wished every success during his period of office as the Society commenced its 26 th year. The outgoing Chairman further proposed that joint conferences with the Bar and (Cont'd, on p.279) * 275

Rosemarie Loftus.