Workplace worries More than words Take a letter Valuable strategies for Now is the time for An open letter to the dealing with workplace mediation to come into judiciary calls for five harassment and bullying the spotlight and shine specific aspects of reform gaLAW SOCIETY ette€4.00 JAN/FEB 2021 02 CACHE IN THE ATTIC 9 771393 695029 ISSN 1393−6956 Are you a cookie monster? gaLAW SOCIETY ette IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR ONLINE READERS In order to enhance your enjoyment of the online, interactive version of the Gazette, readers are strongly advised to download the magazine first to their computer or device. Prior to downloading the Gazette, make sure that you are using the most up-to-date versions of your favourite browser, for example, Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox or Chrome. IMPORTANT NOTE ON PAGE VIEW If you are reading the downloaded PDF in two-page view, ensure that you uncheck the ‘Show cover in two page view’ option. 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Law Society of Ireland DOTTED LINE *(IRISH MAGAZINE AWARDS 2018) Are ‘comic book contracts’ the user-friendly future? Feel the pages. Smell the ink. 3. You can’t beat this! Your multi-award-winning magazine of record, the Law Society Gazette, delivers the legal news to 14,000 subscribers a month – that’s a total of 42,000 readers. Condensed Don’t forget, the interactive Gazette is available into a digest online, with lots of cool features like links to Gazette.ie now delivers a weekly briefing of music, videos, legislation and case law. the top legal news stories, as published on You can also access the Gazette archive and Gazette.ie, to Law Society members and sub- indices right back to 1997. scribers via email. gazette.ie Law Society Gazette Jan/Feb 2021 1 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE CONFRONTING THE DARK SIDE n 19 January, all Council and normally at great personal cost and little members of the Law recognition. Society engaged in four Irish and Northern Irish history in more hours of training in modern times is a case in point, and represents unconscious bias. Staff a microcosm of certain aspects of US history, at the Society have also but with laudable positive outcomes. Our efforts availed of the training, and the programme will at peace and reconciliation in Ireland have be made available to the entire profession by our had positive influences in other conflict zones, OCPD team in due course. including South Africa, Israel and Palestine, and The issue first came to prominence in the the Basque Country. It shows the power and legal profession arising from a report issued significance of good example. by the International Bar Association, which found that sexual harassment and unconscious Shortcomings bias were widespread within the profession What can we, as solicitors, do? First, we can throughout the world (see article, p48). recognise our own shortcomings – which is Generally, we are lucky in Ireland, in that what unconscious-bias training is designed societal developments tend to lag somewhat to do. The principles of diversity, inclusion, behind the curve. If, as a country, we manage and unconscious bias are surely the same for our affairs sensibly by learning from others, we countries and humanity as they are in our offices can avoid most, if not all, of the downsides of and communities. I therefore encourage all of the challenges that face other countries. Racial crisis In recent months, we have been witnessing THE TRAINING BEING the racial crisis in the USA brought about by attitudes within society that fail to accommodate PROVIDED BY YOUR LAW others who we perceive to be different from ourselves. While the American Civil War SOCIETY HAS ENORMOUS ended 250 years of slavery, and society moved on in many respects, in other ways it reverted POTENTIAL FOR GOOD to ‘business as usual’. Relatively little was done in terms of a substantial or sustained effort to you to embrace the training and do everything effect reconciliation between the white and you can to promote these ideas at every level – black populations, leading to an underlying both at home and abroad – in the years ahead. racism that persists to this day. Our future depends on how we treat our fellow Racism is accepting stereotypical beliefs that human beings and how we manage race relations separate people. The only way true equality and the issues of equality before the law. So you and justice will happen is if we recognise and can see that the training being provided by your resist racist tendencies – our unconscious Law Society has enormous potential for good. biases. It requires immense courage to stand up I wish you well, personally and professionally, JAMES CAHILL, against injustice. Only a tiny minority do so, in the challenging year that lies ahead. PRESIDENT 2 CONTENTS??????? ?????? Jan/Feb 2021 Law Society Gazette gazette.ie PIC: GAZETTE STUDIO/SHUTTERSTOCK/ LAW SOCIETY GAZETTE LAW Workplace worries More than words Take a letter Volume 115, Valuable strategies for Now is the time for An open letter to the dealing with workplace mediation to come into judiciary calls for five harassment and bullying the spotlight and shine specific aspects of reform number 1 • Vol 115 No 1 • Vol gaLAW SOCIETY ette€4.00 JAN/FEB 2021 Jan/Feb 2021 Subscriptions: €65 (€95 overseas) Blackhall Place, Dublin 7 02 CACHE IN Law Society of Ireland tel: 01 672 4828 THE ATTIC fax: 01 672 4801 9 771393 695029 ISSN 1393−6956 Are you a cookie monster? email: [email protected] PROFESSIONAL NOTICES: see the ‘Rates’ panel in the professional notices section of this Gazette 14 COMMERCIAL ADVERTISING: contact Seán Ó hOisín, 10 Arran Road, Dublin 9; mobile: 086 811 7116, tel: 01 837 5018, email: sean@ lawsociety.ie. See the Gazette rate card online at www.lawsociety.ie/ gazette-rates HAVE YOU MOVED? 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Visit www.carbonbalancedpaper.com and www.fsg. org. The packaging is 100% compostable and the magazine is 100% recyclable so, if disposing of it, place it in your green bin. 40 gazette.ie Law Society Gazette Jan/Feb 2021 CONTENTS 3 FEATURES 24 That’s the way the cookie 40 A moment on the lips crumbles The pandemic has transformed how our courts are run. Time’s up for tracking tools – so don’t get caught with Mediation has an even more important role in this your hand in the cookie jar, warn Sean O’Donnell and new reality than it had before, says Patrick Moylan Kelly Mackey 44 Hitting a century 30 The title keeper Just over 100 years since the solicitors’ profession was first Justine Carty’s career has been driven by a strong work opened to women, the Gazette is delighted to augment ethic and love of learning. Mary Hallissey meets the previously published accounts with additional biographical property law guru and Law Society Council member details of two of these women pioneers 36 On parole 48 Make it stop A recent Supreme Court case brought focus to the Research into bullying and sexual harassment in the respective roles and functions of the Parole Board and legal profession can teach us valuable lessons about the Mental Health (Criminal Law) Review Board, write best practice for law firms.