A TRIBUTE TO OUTGOING PAST PRESIDENT BRIAN GALLAGHER

A TRIBUTE TO OUTGOING PAST PRESIDENT BRIAN GALLAGHER
David Bergin, the recently elected President of the
Association, needs no introduction to colleagues as
he is one of the best known and most respected
family lawyers in the country. Here he sets out his
vision for the DSBA in the coming year.
It is a great pleasure and indeed honour to write this, my first
president’s message for our excellent magazine The
Parchment.
Having been appointed as President on the 1 st November last
I am now in the job for ever two months. Already I am
hugely impressed by the commitment and hard work of all
the Council members, all of the Chairpersons of the various
committees and all of the committee members themselves.
The DSBA now represents over 3,000 Solicitors in Dublin
and it is quite incredible that everyone involved gives of their
time and effort entirely on a voluntary basis. There are very
few organisations where this happens to such an extent.
Despite the fact that we are a fast growing organisation we
can not lose sight of main aims of the DSBA namely:
To represent all of our members interests as best we can in
relation to any issues which may arise and
To emphasise and expand the collegiality aspect of the
DSBA.
As you know the last President of the DSBA was Brian
Gallagher who was hugely successful and hardworking The
amount of time and effort expended by Brian on DSBA
issues was enormous and as a result we have taken major
strides forward during the last year.
I have no doubt that the coming year will be exciting and
challenging. We are involved in a number of new initiatives
which we are sure will greatly assist our members and will
help us achieve our fundamental aims.
The DSBA intends to improve and develop ‘Consult a
Colleague’. This group has replaced the old Helpline. Whilst
continuing to help and advise Solicitors in any way they can,
we intend to expand the services provided by this committee
to cover the giving of advice to and representation of
colleagues who unfortunately may find themselves coming in
front of the various disciplinary bodies of the Law Society.
We intend to expand and improve the already highly
successful seminars which have taken place and in particular
intend to emphasise the importance of practice development
by way of seminars, workshops and other initiatives.
One of the great successes of the DSBA in the past has been
the creation and improvement of this magazine namely the
Parchment. I am quite sure that under the stewardship of
Keith Walsh it will continue to provide essential information
and news for our members.
One of the great benefits of membership of the DSBA is that
it gives everyone an opportunity to meet their colleagues at
various seminars and functions throughout the year in an
informal setting. It is my view that this is vitally important
for our members as it leads to greater collegiality and
co-operation between members both during their working
day and after hours
As we all know Solicitors these days are continually being
attacked, criticised and undermined from various sources.
We rarely if ever receive credit for any steps taken with a
view to providing better services for our clients. This is clear
from the recent Report of the Competition Authority which
entirely ignored the major changes which have already taken
place in our professions and which contained totally unfair
and irrelevant criticisms. These of course provide continuing
fodder for all sorts of people and groups to continue to
criticise our profession. The DSBA will take all necessary
steps to create a fairer and more accurate public perception of
our profession.
As an organisation we are in most respects separate from the
Law Society. We are not a regulatory body and have no
regulatory side to our activities. We are here to represent, as
I have already said, the interests of our members and, during
the coming year, with the help of all council and committee
members I will do everything I can to achieve the
fundamental goals of the DSBA.
David Bergin
As this is the first issue of the Parchment since the
presidential baton was passed on from Brian
Gallagher to David Bergin we thought it
appropriate that we acknowledge the immense
contribution made to the Association by Brian
during his year.
Brian was unstinting in his efforts to do better at
the Association and endeavoured to make a real
difference for practitioners. Carving out his own
identity for the Association from the word go he
identified the Practice management area as being
of crucial importance to the profession and pushed
it up the priority ladder in the fulfilment of the
Association’s educational role. A series of
practice management lectures were put together
and presented to members throughout the year by
Ann Neary and her team. These were an
outstanding success and owed much to Brian’s
foresight and vision.
A further theme of Brian’s year related to the area
of professional indemnity insurance cover. Brian
was resolute in his determination to ensure that the
membership would secure as much information as
possible from the service provider and in a timely
manner so that the membership could evaluate
which insurer provided the most suitable sort of
cover and as competitive a quote as possible. For
the first time a number of service providers pitched
for our business on the basis of a criteria set down
by the Association. A selection of these insurers
were given an opportunity at a DSBA seminar to
stake out their stall and this was recognised by
many as having been of real value to the
Association .
During Brian’s year too significant progress was
made in relation to CPD-On Line project and the
largest number of seminars ever were held.
During Brian’s year too the Judiciary from the
District, Circuit, and High Court were all provided
with the hospitality of the Association and an
exchange of views on an informal basis. At every
opportunity Brian would promote the critical role
played by solicitors in the administration of
justice.
Throughout all the social occasions Brian was very
ably assisted by his beautiful wife Lucia. His
conference in Rome was a stunning success where
the itinerary was put together by Brian in his usual
thoughtful and conscientious frame mixing the
serious, with the informative, and not least social.
Perhaps the only occasion in which I detected a
note of discord from Brian was on the occasion of
the mass in St. Michan’s for the opening of the law
term upon the invitation of Judge Peter Kelly. It
was remarked upon to him that the tradition of
those of the main players attending was to wear
morning suit and top hat. However, for an
innately simple and utterly modest person such as
Brian this was a step too far!. His best court suit
and crisp white shirt would do just fine and none
of this top hat nonsense!.
Every President leaves his or own particular mark
on the Association and Brian is no different and
the DSBA is immensely grateful to him for his
committed service and dedication during his year
and no doubt he will join us in wishing his
successor David Bergin the very best wishes in his
term as President
Kevin O'Higgins