LAW AS A CALLING

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 150, 21 March 1931, Page 6

LAW AS A CALLING

Competition of State TALK TO STUDENTS Chief Justice’s Advice The extent to which the Public Trust Office now engaged in law activities was a factor to be considered by those entering the legal profession, said the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, in an address at Victoria University College last evening to the Law Students’ Society and Law Faculty Club, although he refrained from expressing an opinion on the subject of State competition. \ Would there be room for all the men coming forward to meet the demand? he asked. So far as solicitors were concerned. tn ere was land transfer work, which was not so remunerative as it used to be, as there was competition in the lending department and others. The Public Trust had served a useful purpose, and had proved a good institution, but whether or hot It should indulge in all the activities in which it indulged now, and in which it competed with the legal profession, it would be improper for him to express an opinion, and he did not mean to do so. He mentioned it because these were matters every man should consider on entering the profession. Parents should not make their sons barristers and solicitors without considering the aptitude of the boy, as unless he had a special aptitude it was of no use him entering the legal profession nowadays. It was also recommended those entering the law that they make a study of accountancy for a period. Probity and Efficiency.

There were two main qualities essential to the practice of the law, as barrister and solicitor, strict probity and efficiency, said Sir Michael Myers. The profession was a hard taskmaster, and it was of no use taking it up unless one was prepared to work hard. If one was inclined to spend the afternoons in golf or the evenings at jazz, then those things would not mix with professional law. His Honour referred to the old system of articles, which, he said, did not possess the magic that was supposed, but he did advise those studying at night to engage themselves in . practical work in a legal office in the daytime, so that when they passed their examinations they were better fitted to conduct a practice on their own account. Barrister and Solicitor. In New Zealand the two professions of barrister and solicitor were amalgamated, but in England they were entirely separated. In England there had been a great deal of controversy as to whether the two should be amalgamated as in New eZaland. It was not much to prophesy, but he ventured to prophesy that amalgamation in England was just as unlikely as separation in New Zealand, although he did not express any opinion as to whether separation would be a good thing In New Zealand. In England the most important business was' done in London. In Australia it was centralised in Sydney, Melbourne and a few large cities. In New Zealand there were four substantial cities and some smaller ones, and the tendency had been to decentralise. A separation of the two professions in New Zealand was impossible except to the extent that there might be room for a limited number of leaders to practise at the bar alone. There was room for such In Wellington and Auckland, but whether that was so in the South Island he could not say. Specialisation. The Chief Justice hoped there would' always be a limited number of men in Wellington and Auckland who would practise at the bar alone, because he believed it would be a good thing for the bar and would give the profession a leadership it would not otherwise have. He had heard it said that there was room in New Zealand for specialisation, and he referred to the different branches of the work in England, Parliamentary, criminal, company law, general commercial work, insurance, shipping, divorce, income and revenue, and Chancery work. In each of these there was room for men to specialise, and some of them did immensely well in the particular branch they took up. Was there room in New Zealand for one, let alone several, to specialise in any of those branches? There might be if the whole of that particular work was centralised in Wellington. But that was not so and never would be, so the specialist was out of the question. High Standard. The profession maintained a very high standard in New Zealand, and in the early days those engaged in it were men who had studied in the English universities and had brought with them the best of the English traditions. Those traditions had been maintained by those who had followed, and his Honour hoped the young men comingon would do their best to maintain them. If they followed in the steps of the past generation there would not be very much wrong with the profession in New Zealand.