.........and look where this has got the legal profession......
I know I am going to be sorry for saying this, but the legal profession in Ireland is one of the best regulated professions anywhere, and the level of protection which Irish consumers enjoy in their dealings with the legal profession, is on a par with any developed economy. We paid for Jonathan Brooks; We paid for Elio Malocco. If they have dipped into client money, we will no doubt end up paying the clients of the two solicitors currently in bother. People were badly frightened and significantly inconvenienced by previous solicitor shut-downs, but nobody was left out of pocket. Everybody got paid. That's what we do, because we are indeed a profession.
I accept the stockbroking analogy\comparison with the legal profession in a historical context, but as regards current regulatory issues, I have one word in rebuttal: Morroghs.
My practice is a general practice, with perhaps a slight bias toward high net worth individuals and a leaning toward second generation wealth. I really don't have much first hand knowledge of what you might call the 'sharp end' of the legal profession. But it does irk me at times to see such things as ;
1. Good ol' Joe 'the peoples friend' Duffy 'breaking' the story of alleged overcharging on residential abuse cases, without any real acknowledgement that the story was in fact 'broken' a month earlier by the legal profession itself.
2. No real acknowledgment from Joe or his ilk that securing compensation for the victimised and marginalised in our society is something to which the legal profession has contributed far more (and risked its own resources in so doing) than any number of prime time specials.
3. Perhaps I am unduly thin skinned, but where a rich person or company goes to court, the media never seem slow to comment on their use of well-heeled, expensive, high-flyer lawyers. Where a refugee is at risk of deportation, or an autistic child is suing for the treatment they need, or a woman is suing for the removal of her ovaries, or a child handicapped at birth is getting to court (some 12 years later) to get compensation for their negligent treatment, I don't seem to see a whole pile of favourable coverage for the lawyers who take on such cases - often with little prospect of payment unless they win, often with potentially years of work ahead of them. Some of them are of course in it for the money; but some of these guys are unsung heroes.
One of the marks of a health democracy is a strong and independent legal profession. Lawyers are expensive, and do not expect to be loved, but we should not take for granted the rights that we enjoy, and we should not be mean-minded in acknowledging the role that lawyers have played, and continue to play, in securing those rights.
rant over.