{"id":517180,"date":"2026-06-25T05:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T05:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/517180\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T05:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T05:01:16","slug":"solicitor-with-extensive-and-appalling-disciplinary-record-struck-off-by-high-court-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/517180\/","title":{"rendered":"Solicitor with \u2018extensive and appalling\u2019 disciplinary record struck off by High Court \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Dublin<\/a> solicitor with an \u201cextensive and appalling\u201d disciplinary record arising from various instances of professional misconduct has been struck off the roll of solicitors by the High Court<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In a judgment published this week, High Court president Judge David Barniville made orders against Ian McSweeney after a disciplinary tribunal made findings against the solicitor, including that he misappropriated client funds.<\/p>\n

McSweeney, who previously practised at McSweeney Solicitors, Dublin Street, Balbriggan<\/a>, was previously suspended from practice in 2024.<\/p>\n

As well as being struck off the roll of solicitors, McSweeney was ordered to pay the costs of the Law Society<\/a> in bringing the strike-off application to the High Court, measured at \u20ac3,254; a further \u20ac10,000 to the society\u2019s compensation fund; and \u20ac4,524 to cover the society\u2019s costs in bringing the case before a disciplinary tribunal.<\/p>\n

The society\u2019s application to strike off McSweeney arose from allegations against him which were considered in February by the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, an independent body that considers complaints of misconduct against solicitors and barristers. <\/p>\n

Among the allegations considered was a claim that McSweeney withdrew a total of \u20ac49,990.89 from a client account on a piecemeal basis for personal use. Solicitors hold money for their clients on trust by way of a client account. <\/p>\n

The tribunal found this allegation was proven, and amounted to misconduct. <\/p>\n

The tribunal said any deficit on a client account was a serious matter as \u201cthe protection of the client [money] is essential to maintain the public\u2019s confidence in the solicitors profession\u201d. <\/p>\n

The tribunal also found McSweeney breached various regulations in failing to prepare certain documentation and accounts.<\/p>\n

The tribunal concluded that the appropriate sanction to impose on McSweeney was one of a strike-off from the roll of solicitors, having regard to the serious findings of misconduct and his prior disciplinary history.<\/p>\n

The judge noted McSweeney\u2019s \u201cextensive and appalling\u201d disciplinary history, involving various instances of misconduct and findings against him by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal and the High Court.<\/p>\n

The judge said he was satisfied to adopt the sanctions recommended by the tribunal and sought by the Law Society. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that this is another case in which very serious findings of dishonesty and misconduct have been made in relation to a solicitor, involving misappropriation of client funds, as well as other very serious incidents of misconduct. <\/p>\n

\u201cFurther, these findings were made in the case of a solicitor who has an appalling disciplinary record,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Dublin solicitor with an \u201cextensive and appalling\u201d disciplinary record arising from various instances of professional misconduct has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11594,615,73,61,60,19394,43],"class_list":["post-517180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-balbriggan","tag-dublin","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-law-society","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517180","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=517180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}