EXCESSIVE COMPLIANCE obligations may stifle innovation, a Law Society conference on new opportunities for the profession heard yesterday. Aidan Horan of the Institute of Public Administration said compliance took place within a context – the morals, standards and ethics of those involved. “It is an ethically and values-driven approach as much as a rules-driven approach,” he said.
In the area of governance, principles and ethics were more important than the codification of rules, he said. The public sector was much more complex than the private sector as its purpose was not necessarily to make a profit, but to provide a social benefit, he added.
Corporate governance, environment and energy, EU law and international business and regulation and compliance are all likely to be growth areas for legal services in the future, the conference, on New and Emerging Opportunities for the Legal Profession heard. It was organised by the Law Society’s career support service. Over 200 people attended the conference, according to career support officer Keith O’Malley.
Prof Niamh Brennan of UCD said that no qualifications were required of company directors. They were there to act as referees between the management and share-holders, and it was up to the share-holders to ensure that they were capable.
“If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly,” she said, stressing that it was necessary to take risks in business.
Pointing out that she had recently retired as a member of the board of Ulster Bank, she said infallibility was not required of board members, business judgment was. “There were errors of judgment,” she said.
“If a CEO had gone to the board at the height of the boom and said ‘get out of property and cut your profits by three-quarters’, he’d have been given the red card.”
She urged lawyers to look to the substance rather than the letter of of the law. “You hear of pretty awful things that are ‘not unlawful’,” she said. “There is ambivalence towards right and wrong.”
Kevin Prendergast from the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement said company law had changed greatly in the past 10 years, and was in a state of constant flux. “On an almost annual basis there have been significant changes in company law,” he said.
He pointed out that there would be a consolidated companies Bill within the next two years, updating the law and bringing it together, with an expected 1,500 sections. “It will be one of the biggest pieces of legislation in the history of the State.
“Every single company in the State will have to deal with the new law. There are opportunities for lawyers. But the people providing that advice will have to upskill in advance,” he said.
Andrew Beck BL, director of the Irish Centre for European Law, said there was scope for solicitors in developing EU law opportunities on a case-by-case basis and for developing a strategic EU law direction.
Few, if any, areas of Irish law were completely untouched by EU law, he said. A solicitor should remove any mental blocks to EU law and consider whether there was an EU law aspect to his or her client’s case and would it help the client.
He pointed out that an EU regulation on recognition and enforcement in matters of succession law had been introduced in October. This would not create a harmonised succession law across the EU, but would provide for its recognition and authentication in the various member states.
Ireland had three months to opt in to this, he said, pointing out that the UK had already started the consultation process.
Mr O’Malley said over 300 solicitors had registered with career support service in its first three months of operation.
Insurance uncertainty
Today is the deadline for solicitors renewing their professional indemnity insurance, yet many have not yet received a quote, according to the director general of the Law Society, Ken Murphy.
The main provider, the Solicitors Mutual Defence Fund cites “administrative delays”, he says, but in practice this means many solicitors are facing into uncertainty about their future.
“We expect that those who do get quotes and reinsure will have it back-dated to December 1st, but there will be some who don’t get insurance. It will be impossible to know how many until practising certificates are renewed early next year.”
This is likely to force some sole practitioners to merge with others, he adds.
Asked about the danger of clients having to sue an uninsured solicitor arising out of liability incurred in the coming months, Murphy says most of the insurance claims this year arose out of commercial property transactions, very few of which are taking place at the moment, so this was unlikely to arise.