Madam, - Without wishing to be divisive within my own profession I, am surprised at the letter from Eugene McCague, chairman of Arthur Cox Solicitors (November 6th), which contains an obvious contradiction.
On the one hand Mr McCague seems to believe that banks should allow solicitors to certify their own property transactions; on the other hand he acknowledges that as, with all walks of life, there will be a tiny proportion of rotten apples in the profession.
No bank should allow a solicitor to self-certify. It is walking into the hands of the rotten apples (forgiveness, please, for the mixed metaphor). - Yours, etc,
KEN J. BYRNE, Solicitor, Rock Hill, Blackrock, Co Dublin.
Madam, - I am shocked by Anthony Sheridan's conclusion that, because of the recent controversies, we solicitors are now morally suspect (November 7th).
It presupposes that as a profession we are some sort of moral supermen and superwomen who are not subject to human failing.
I, at least, claim no moral superiority or insight and am a human being subject to the same failings as everyone else.
He and other commentators are correct, however, in concluding that The Law Society cannot be both a representative body and a regulatory body.
It has now become oppressive to practising solicitors in its attempt to assure the public of its regulatory role. It no longer functions as an effective representative body for solicitors.
It is only right that when solicitors fail legally and morally, an effective regulatory body should hold them to account. It is also right that when solicitors fail they have a representative body to speak for them. The present system is satisfactory for neither solicitors nor clients.
I do not care who regulates me. If they do not do their job the public will let them know. I do care who represents me. - Yours, etc,
RODERICK TYRRELL, Solicitor, Haddington Road, Dublin 4.
Madam, - It's a bit rich for Eugene McCague to criticise the director general of the Law Society, Ken Murphy, regarding the banks' lax acceptance of letters of undertaking from solicitors acting in their own cause in commercial transactions. It was at a law conference as far back as 1984 in Galway that Mr McCague branded many solicitors as crooks. Therefore, surely he would agree that banks should be reminded that a lawyer with a brief case can steal more than a thousand men with guns. - Yours, etc,
VINCENT CROWLEY, Solicitor, Bow Street, Dublin 7.