Legal Standards As Guarantee Of Order

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28260, 24 April 1957, Page 7

Legal Standards As Guarantee Of Order

It is no overstatement that if you subvert the integrity and standards of the legal" profession, the main guarantee of order and security of our society vill be gone,’ Sir Wilfrid Sim told the Dominion legal conference m Christchurch yesterday He was presenting a paper on professional ethics

It cannot be overlooked that t bout one half of the world today £ now organised upon the footjcg that this world must break tradition, and it is intended to be t shirtsleeves world for all,” said Sir Wilfrid Sim. -It is, I suggest, for the law to be in no drifting mood, but to be clear-minded and vigilant against subtle change within itjelf. affecting the standards and the stalwart, independent character and habits of the profession, which may be so slow moving as to be almost imperceptible at the time. but, in the ultimate, subversive.”

or a local authority, or with the permission of the Bar Council. Of the publication of photographs of counsel in cases he said: I have been given to undrrstand that the press has, with or without the subject’s permission, uncontrolled access to the photographer who hold the original, and so obtains a copy. It may be that part of the profession’s task is to educate the press itself on what it regards as unprofessional in the matter of advertisement by the publication of photographs of members of the profession in wig and gown.” Sir Wilfred Sim also spoke on the position of those who practise as barristers only, on the conduct of litigation, and on the “independence of the Bar.’’ Counsel should maintain a fearless independence, although observing every respect and courtesy towards the tribunal before which he appeared, he said. “English practice is to forbid what is described as a ‘well recognised’ principle that a barrister should not carry on profession or business, he said. This was to maintain a position of detachment. The general rule was not without exceptions, one of which was that a practising barrister might be a director, but not a managing director of companies. He distinguished work in the privacy of the board room and the active management of a business.

Concluding his paper. Sir Wil- s frid Sun said: “I observe, with ’ deference, that politics today are ’ all-pervasive, affecting and colour- j ing the whole code of social behaviour, of which the law is only a part; and for New Zealand lawyers of the future, in par- ] ticular, to hold politics in their . proper place, may become in its collective capacity one of the pro- - fession’s foremost duties or ethics, in defence of itself and of its ! traditional duties to the commun- ] ity- , Comprehending All Conduct Introducing his subject, Sir ’ Wilfrid Sim said: “I take the topic 1 to comprehend everything relating to the conduct of the lawyer in his professional life, whether at ’ the Bar or in the office—in a ' word, the whole field of his pro- : fessional actions and conduct.” He quoted from the international code cf ethics approved and promulgated at the International Bar Association conference at Oslo in . 1956. and the Commonwealth Conference. On particular questions of ethics. Sir Wilfrid Sim spoke of advertising, touting and unfair competition. “This is said to be based upon the premise that one member of the profession should not seek to 'jain ai advantage professionally over his colleagues by means regarded by them as unfair.” he said. Counsel could not publish details of his practice or of cases in which he had been engaged as counsel. Associated with this was the ban on journalism by a barrister. The English rule on the subject of the publication of photographs was that a barrister might not take steps to procure the publication of his photograph as a member of the Bar. or authorise its ' use, except on his appointment to silk, as a recorder, or as a member or candidate for Parliament,

The profession in New Zealand was in a special position—socially and educationally isolated, said Sir Wilfred Sim. “We are dependent almost entirely upon the remembrance of what our fathers did before us; be it acknowledged in its fullness that in the decorum and dignity of our Courts we have before us daily as near a true replica of the High Courts at the centre as will be found anywhere in the Commonwealth,” he said.