"NO POACHING."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 205, 30 August 1935, Page 9

"NO POACHING."

ACCOUNTANTS AND LAWYERS. Tn the natural course of evolution, certain tasks which formerly fell wholly to legal practitioners have come to be regarded as work which should be undertaken by members of the younger profession of accountancy. This subject was mentioned recently by Mr. W. T. Macßride, president" of the Commonwealth Institute of Accountants, a body which lias practically the same code of professional ethics as the New Zealand Society of Accountants. "It is not long," he said, "since solicitors exclusively administered deceased estates and managed trusts. Nowadays a large proportion of this work is performed by accountants and trustee companies. Broadly speaking, wherever legal work includes involved ligures and accounts, that portion naturally drifts to accountants, because of their special training and fitness for the work and because, on their own confession, solicitors in Australia usually are not expert in accounts. To that extent, therefore, accountants may be said to have made peaceful and legitimate penetration into what may once have been the domain of the legal profession. It would be quite another thing if accountants so acted as to be guilty of poaching. On good authority I am informed that there, is a tendency amongst some accountants to try their hands on the preparation of important, legal documents. In my opinion that certainly would constitute poaching, for it is no part of a professional accountant's work, and so far as this institute is concerned, I think we must pronounce clearly against such a practice. The accountant who essays to do such work is not only guilty of a breach of etiquette, but almost invariably he would be making trouble for his client and himself; and no reputable client, knowing the facts, would thank his auditor for attempting to do the work which rightly belongs to a solicitor. However, I believe that the vast majority of accountants in this country observe unwritten laws of etiquette in this respect, quite apart from obeying the dictates of the common-sense maxim—'Every man .to his own work." "Recently we have seen in Australia the brilliant results of co-operation between a prominent member of the legal profession and a prominent member of our own profession acting conjointly as a Royal Commission of Inquiry into taxation methods. Wherever the laws of the country affect accountancy—as they do particularly in sue if spheres as taxation, bankruptcy, common law, etc. —accountants will find it to their great advantage to have the co-operation of the legal profession when changes of amendments in such laws are contemplated." Similar beneficial co-operation of leading members of the legal and accountancy professions of New Zealand for public welfare has occurred frequently.