Concern over competition

Press, 30 December 1988, Page 6

Concern over competition

PA Wellington The New Zealand Law Society’s president, Mr Graham Cowley, is worried about the impact of competition which is developing in the legal profession. “The attributes upon which professional responsibilities have for centuries been based do not lie easily with some essential ingredients of open competition,” he said.

“I am concerned that an excess of competition could result in a lowering of standards.”

Mr Cowley makes the comments in his Christmas message to lawyers, printed in the latest issue of the “Law Journal.” He said there was a shortage of qualified lawyers in New Zealand and thus a choice in em-

ployment opportunities. They could work in the corporate scene or move into private practice.

Members of the profession had choices to specialise and develop particular interests to better equip themselves and serve the public. “However, the very competition that has developed within the legal profession in the last few years causes me some worry and concern,” he said.

He believed lawyers had faced their responsibilities in 1988 with great responsibility and candour.

He invited lawyers to meet the challenges arising from the range of issues which now faced them and “to resist moves that may, in any way, erode or weaken the in-

tegrity and independence of our proud New Zealand legal profession.” Issues facing the lelgal fraternity in 1989 included:

® Maintaining the availability of legal aid in the face of the sharply rising costs of legal aid services.

® Ensuring the availability of legal advice and services to those who did not qualify for legal aid but who could not afford legal help. ® The proposition put forward by some, said to be in the interests of consumers, that cost was the most important goal and quality was an optional extra.

© Suggestions that ethical rules and codes of conduct inhibited competition, based on the

premise that competition, even if without standards, always benefited the consumer.

@ The “very small” proportion of lawyers who failed to maintain the high professional standards for which the legal profession was recognised.

Mr Cowley said these issues went to the heart of the protection that an independent legal profession gave to citizens “by way of independent analytical and responsible advice and assistance.”

“Events during this last year in Fiji, Malaysia and Singapore — to name just a few instances relatively close at hand — have shown the need for an independent guarantee of citizens’ rights and the rule of law.”