THE LEGAL PROFESSION: FACING THE FUTURE

As we usher in a new executive of the Law Association I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all incoming members of the Association executive and wish them a successful term in office. I would also like to place on the table my concerns regarding the unprecedented challenges which the profession now faces and to which it must respond.

A Caribbean Jurisprudence
Much has been said (negatively) about the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). We have heard that we are not ready, there is no guarantee of independence and many other excuses for our own ineptitude. The real challenge is not the (feared lack of) independence of the CCJ but our own willingness to create a culture of constructive criticism of our judicial system, laws and the administration of justice. The truth is that we do very little reading and still less writing on legal issues. It is only when we put our ‘‘pen to paper” and ensure that judges, politicians and persons entrusted with authority be made accountable that we will be guaranteed an independent, responsive and responsible judiciary and democracy.

Social Response
A challenge which must be faced by our profession is to respond to the needs of the society. In the past we have taken a very conservative stand on critical issues of public importance. However, I wish to suggest that the profession must take a more proactive stance on social issues and public education. We must be able to articulate positions on such issues as constitution reform – the pervasive criminal culture in our society and even the recent territorial dispute with Barbados. I look at the website of the Jamaican Bar Association and identify nineteen sub-committees dealing, among other things, with such issues as the CCJ, civil procedure and criminal law, constitutional law and human rights, intellectual property, continuing legal education, law reform, legal aid and technology. It is through these committees that members of the Association participate in hearings before the Joint Select Committee in the Parliamentary debate before the promulgation of legislation and even prior to that in endeavouring to either introduce and/or amend legislation. In our own society all of these areas are of critical importance but where is the discussion among members of the profession on such issues? In developed countries the legal profession considers it a professional responsibility to do pro bono work and has established guidelines for members to follow. In addition, they actively provide public education through lectures, literature and other programmes on areas of law and legal practice offering the public a chart from which to steer through the labyrinth of the litigation process and legal services.

Access to Justice
This requires that the law governing the lives of the individual in a society must be understandable, relevant, just, and each individual must be able to access the courts efficiently, quickly and effectively regardless of their economic circumstance. In this context, it is critical that the legal profession revisits its opposition to the Civil Proceedings Rules and look at the success of these rules in the Eastern Caribbean and Jamaica.

Globalisation
We now live in a world where we are instantly impacted by anything happening elsewhere. International crime, money-laundering and international commerce have taken on an immediacy which we never imagined a few years ago. This has changed the law which we are required to practice on a daily basis and very few of us are capable of responding to the increased complexity, quantum growth and insatiable demands on our time and resources that being conversant with such changes require. Added to this is the competition for the provision of legal services through the FTAA, NAFTA, CCME and WTO. We will increasingly find ourselves competing in a global market with foreign lawyers with specialties and experience advanced to us, for services based in our jurisdiction.

Information Technology (IT)
IT offers definite, immediate challenges and opportunities to the legal profession. In many jurisdictions members of the public currently have access of legal advice online. They can download legal forms and be guided to fill them out properly, submit them to the court and be guided through the litigation process. In Australia, the government is actively moving to apply technology towards creating an environment where many criminal and civil proceedings can be dispensed with from the home of the affected party without the intervention of an attorney.

Legal Education
To meet the encroaching demands, continuing legal education is critical in transforming practice, reducing costs, increasing efficiency and being more client-driven. There must, therefore, be a serious re-education programme for us to meet these challenges and to allow us to transform these very real threats into opportunities. Additionally, we must be concerned about new entrants into the profession. The emerging technologies provide an ideal opportunity to partner the experience of age with the knowledge and ability of youth to transform the profession for the future. This means that the profession must play a more important role in the process of legal education both at the undergraduate and professional levels to mould a curriculum that will foster lawyers for the future.

Conclusion
I hope that the challenges which I have identified engage us in sober reflection on our future as a profession. We must respond in more creative and innovative ways. To do so there needs to be greater participation by members and the structure and practices of the association may need to be revisited to encourage such participation. We must redefine our relationship with the public and enkindle public confidence in the profession recognising that the public has long since ceased to pay us much attention and have consigned us to the irrelevancy to which we have condemned ourselves. Our profession must chart a new course for itself otherwise it will become increasingly irrelevant to the emerging environment and, left unattended, we will be as bewildered as Alice in Wonderland on a country road while others take the superhighway.