A Dublin-based solicitor has been sanctioned by the High Court after a disciplinary tribunal upheld claims that he failed to comply with undertakings made to a bank.<\/p>\n
High Court president Judge David Barniville this week made orders prohibiting Edward O\u2019Brien, formerly of Edward J O\u2019Brien Solicitors, Lucan, from practising as a legal practitioner other than as an employee for 10 years. O\u2019Brien was also ordered to pay costs arising from an inquiry into allegations made against him. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien, who was not represented at the High Court hearing, has not held a practising certificate since 2022. A solicitor must hold a practising certificate to provide legal services.<\/p>\n
In 2023, the High Court suspended O\u2019Brien, a former Fianna F\u00e1il councillor, from practising as a solicitor in unrelated proceedings.<\/p>\n
The sanctions arise from a complaint to the Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) made by PTSB \u2013 then Permanent TSB \u2013 in August 2021. <\/p>\n
According to court documents, the bank alleged O\u2019Brien failed to comply with an undertaking he gave to the bank relating to the sale of a property in Lucan. In particular, the bank claimed O\u2019Brien, who was acting for the property buyers, failed to provide the bank with relevant documents relating to the sale and failed to communicate with the bank regarding the undertaking to provide same. <\/p>\n
In January, a hearing of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal was convened to consider the allegations, and determine whether they constituted misconduct under the Solicitors Act 1960 and Legal Services Regulation Act 2015. <\/p>\n
The Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal is an independent body that considers complaints of misconduct against solicitors and barristers. <\/p>\n
The tribunal found the allegations were proven, and constituted misconduct. The tribunal determined that the conduct \u201ctended to, and was likely to, bring the solicitors\u2019 profession into disrepute\u201d.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien was not represented at the tribunal hearing. <\/p>\n
At the High Court this week, Hugh McDowell, barrister for the LSRA instructed by Fieldfisher LLP, asked the court to adopt sanctions recommended by the tribunal.<\/p>\n
The judge said the sanctions were appropriate, and made the orders as sought. The judge also made an order for the LSRA\u2019s legal costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Dublin-based solicitor has been sanctioned by the High Court after a disciplinary tribunal upheld claims that he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,895,73,61,60],"class_list":["post-460407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-fianna-fail","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}