The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE MWH DECEMBER 1993

Blackhall Place was currently valued at £17m but that the Society had, over the years, spent several million on its renovation. He questioned whether the Society should move to a building that would require less maintenance. Responding, the President of the Society, Raymond Monahan , said that the profession was very proud of the building and the purchase of a new building would cost at least as much. The Chairman of Finance said that the staffing of the Society had been adjusted in line with a report prepared, at the behest of the Society, by Price Water- house Consultants in 1991. The Society had purchased motor vehicles because this was more cost-effective than paying travelling allowances or expenses. The timing of presentation of the accounts was raised by Leo Mangan who said that the accounts were now out of date since they dealt only with the year ending at 31 December, 1992 and thus, were presented too late to the profession to recommend remedial action. He said that the Society owed too much. Five years ago the level of the Society's debt was £136 per solicitor. As the end of 1992 it was £681 per solicitor. He believed that costs on premises, computers and staff were spiralling out of control. Mr. Mangan noted that under bye-law 3(2) of the Society's bye-laws the accounts for the preceding year had to be prepared no later than 31 March. He put a proposal to the meeting, seconded by Michael Nugent, that the accounts for the year ending 31 December, 1993, would be circulated to each member of the profession by mid-April 1994 and that a budget for 1994 should be prepared by the Finance Committee. The motion was defeated by 34 notes to 24 votes but the President of the Society stated that he would take into account the point being made by Mr. Mangan and the Society would consider the possibility of having the accounts for 1993 prepared in time for presentation to the half-yearly meeting of the Society. Noting that the Society's payroll had increased by 60%, that Council and committee expenses had increased by

87% and conference and reception expenses by 61% since 1987, Terence - Liston said he was disturbed by these trends and that he did not consider that expenditure was being well managed. The Chairman of the Finance Committee assured those present that the finances of the Society were constantly under review, that budgets were prepared and monitored on a monthly basis and supervised carefully by the Council. The President assured j members present that their concerns would be taken on board. John Coffey said that public relations : remained a very sensitive issue for the Society. He was sad to see such a | poor turnout to an Annual General Meeting and he noted that only 2,501 I of a potential 4,130 members had voted in the recent Council elections; this was an illustration of a degree of apathy which had to be addressed. He said more needed to be done in public relations terms to present the solicitors' profession as accessible, approachable and reasonable and as defenders of people's rights. He said that this image had not been sufficiently strongly portrayed in recent months. Many vested interest groups had attacked the legal profession and he was not satisfied that the Society had reacted strongly enough on behalf of the profession. Pat Igoe commended the Society on its recent media coverage and he noted that many detractors of the profession had been less vociferous in recent months. Michael Nugent agreed and said that the Society's public relations had improved by 100%. Many good steps had been taken. He suggested that the Society should seek to obtain allies on important issues when appropriate and that the Society's submissions would be better received and would get better publicity as a result. Pat Igoe suggested that the Society should give further consideration to getting the message to second level students about the difficulty in qualifying as a solicitor at the present time and the poor prospects for newly-qualified solicitors. Public Relations

Advertising

Desmond Moran said that it was time for a review of the Advertising Regula- tions. If trends in advertising, such as were to be seen in the Golden Pages, on the back of buses and to be heard on some radio stations, were permitted to continue then the profession would cease to be a profession and would become merely a trade. Philip Joyce, Chairman of the Registrar's Committee, agreed that the regulations needed tightening up and that this would be top of the Committee's agenda for the coming year. Frank MacGabhann enquired whether it was known what the contribution to the Compensation Fund would be for the practice year 1994/95. The President replied that this was currently being assessed but had not, as yet, been finalised. Mr. MacGabhan said that he would also like to compliment the Criminal Law Committee on an excellent year's work. However, he suggested a Civil Liberties Committee which would have a narrower focus. He believed that this could have a very good PR benefit for the profession. Jerry McCarthy questioned why there was no report of the Staff Retirement Fund Committee, while Patricia McNamara enquired why a report of the Standing Committee on Policy and report of the Solicitors Acts Committee had not appeared in the Annual Report. The President pointed out that the Staff Retirement Fund Committee was a committee that dealt with pensions for staff employed by the Society and this point had already been dealt with. There was no report of the Standing Committee on Policy because he had not convened a policy committee meeting during his year of office. Instead, he had established a Compensation Fund Policy Review Committee and had initiated a review of admissions and education policy. Compensation Fund Criminal Law Committee Committee reports missing

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