Changes in the Regulation of the Legal Profession in Bailed Out Ireland: For Better or Worse?

In accordance with the terms of the loan which was obtained in November 2010 from the IMF and EU (the Troika) the Irish Government committed to significant reform of the legal services market, and the Legal Services Regulation Bill (LSRB) which was published in October 2011 seeks to meet the state's obligations in that regard. The regulation of the legal profession in Ireland is about to be radically altered, if the LSRB is enacted in its current form. It provides for the establishment of a Legal Services Regulatory Authority with responsibility for the regulation of both solicitors and barristers. It will establish the Office of Legal Costs Adjudicator which will endeavor to bring greater transparency to the area of legal costs. A new Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal will also be established to oversee the operation of an independent system for the investigation of complaints relating to professional misconduct.The publication of the LSRB set the scene for a battle royale between both the Bar Council of Ireland and The Law Society of Ireland on the one hand and the Minister for Justice, Mr Alan Shatter on the other. This paper describes the existing framework which governs the regulation of the legal profession in Ireland, explores the key provisions of the LSRB and assesses their potential impact upon the present regulatory structure. It also describes how the LSRB will replace the present regulatory framework with a system of governmental co-regulation. The paper argues that the provisions of the LSRB will help to prevent the re-emergence of a triad involving property developers, financial institutions and lawyers which was a prime mover in the inflation and subsequent collapse of the Irish property bubble.