The Gazette 1995

NOVEMBER 1995

GAZETTE

L A W B R I E F

•j.'li'r; HIP Mill i. A .1

The Law Clerk

Dr. Eamonn G. Hall

In former times, it was considered that the clergy and druidical priests were great lawyers. In fact, "elerk" is derived from the Latin word "clericus", a churchman, clergyman or ecclesiastic. One of the definitions of the word "clerk" in the current Oxford English Dictionary is "a man (or woman) of book learning, one able to read and write: a scholar". However, the dictionary qualified this most noble definition by adding that that specific meaning of the word "clerk" is now archaic. Remuneration, or more precisely, the lack of it in sufficient measure, has been one of the principal concerns of law clerks - now often designated legal executives. But then all professions demonstrate a similar concern. In an address in January 1894 Mr. Spray, the honorary treasurer of the United Law Clerks' Society in an address referred to in the Irish Law Times and Solicitors' Journal (vol. XXV I I I, 1894 p.54) doubted whether any noteworthy writer of fiction before Dickens featured a law clerk. Mr. Spray found sixteen references to law clerks in the works of Charles Dickens but proceeded to illustrate his references to literature by considering that law clerks had made no progress since Charles Dickens's day at least in the matter of remuneration. He did note that in 1894 it required greater effort and a higher level of intelligence than ever before for a law clerk to obtain a

Photographed

at the conferring

ceremony

of Fellowships

of the Irish Institute

of

Legal Executives

on April 25, 1988 were from left to right, front row: Chief

Justice

Thomas Finlay, Master Harry Hill, SC, Veronica Duffy, Fellow, William

Finnerty,

Fellow, James Ivers, Director General,

Law Society, John Kelly,

Fellow.

Second row: Brendan

Byrne, Fellow, Francis Colgan, Fellow, James

firadshaw,

Fellow and Dr. Eamonn

G. Hall,

Solicitor.

to assist him in his judicial office. Law clerks' duties in the US Supreme Court include reading, analysing and preparing memoranda for the justices. In ruling on cases to be selected for review, justices often rely on their clerks' summaries and recommendations. In January 1894, Mr. Spray, the Treasurer of the United Law Clerks' Society noted that in 1894 it required greater effort and a higher level of intelligence than ever before for a law clerk to obtain a post in a solicitor's office. Some aspects of life never change. Law clerks often assist US Supreme Court justices in the preparation of written judgments. Some may say that the clerks from time to time write the entire judgment for some justices but this is nothing to be derided if the law clerk has sufficient intelligence and ability and is supervised by the judge.

The law clerks in the US Supreme Court are expected to be discreet but the Court could not manage its current case-load without their assistance. Each US Supreme Court justice may have four law clerks, two secretaries and a messenger. Most law clerks have attended prestigious law schools and have graduated at the top of their class. Many of the law clerks subsequently become law school professors and three have become US Supreme Court judges. There is the Institute of Legal Executives in London, a professional body representing legal executives and responsible for training legal executives employed in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and many overseas countries. Accordingly, legal executives in those countries have their own recognised status and role within the legal profession and often enjoy a responsible and rewarding career. The Institute of Legal Executives was formed in 1963 with

post in a lawyer's office. Some aspects of life never change.

The term "law clerk" has a significant meaning in the United States. The "law-clerking" institution in the context of the US Courts began in 1882 when Justice Horace Gray hired a recent Harvard Law School graduate

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