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Tánaiste welcomes Oireachtas approval of nominations for membership and Chair of the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority

  • · Vital steps taken in bringing new Legal Services Regulatory Authority into operation. 
  • · 11 people approved this week for membership as required by a motion of both Houses. Dr. Don Thornhill to be Chairperson. 
  • · Parts 1 and 2 of the Legal Services Regulation Act, as necessary to support the start-up, have also been commenced by the Tánaiste this week. 
  • · 1st October 2016 is to be establishment day of the new Authority.

The Tánaiste has welcomed this week’s passing, by both Houses of the Oireachtas, of motions approving the Government’s nominees for membership of the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority. She also welcomed the Government’s appointment of one of those nominees as a lay Chairperson, saying, “I am delighted that we have been able to rely on the dedicated nomination and approval processes in the Legal Services Regulation Act to secure the ratification of these appointments. The candidates were drawn from a group of prescribed nominating bodies representing a balance of interests. We now have a strong and competent team who can set about advancing the work of the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority

I am also delighted that Dr. Don Thornhill has agreed to be Chairperson of the new Authority. He is an accomplished figure who has successfully held public leadership roles in several sectors. Along with his colleagues on the Authority he will bring much experience, knowledge and direction to the roll-out of the new legal services regulatory framework.”

The approved nominees and their nominating bodies are:
· Angela Black - The Citizens Information Board
· Don Thornhill – the Higher Education Authority
· Deirdre McHugh - the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission
· Gerry Whyte - the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission
· Stephen Fitzpatrick - the Institute of Legal Costs Accountants
· Dermot Jewell - the Consumers Association of Ireland
· David Barniville - the Bar Council
· Joan Crawford - the Legal Aid Board
· Nicholas Kearns - the Honorable Society of King’s Inns
· Geraldine Clarke and James MacGuill - the Law Society

The Tánaiste also confirmed that she will shortly make the necessary Order for the appointment of 1 October 2016 as “establishment day” of the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority.

This week’s Oireachtas approval of the nominees for membership of the new Regulatory Authority kicks-off a historical structural reform of the legal services and legal costs regimes under the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015. It also opens the way for the Authority’s early recruitment of a Chief Executive. The phased commencement of the remaining Parts of the 2015 Act will continue during the remainder of this year.

Note to Editors:

The key levers of reform which are contained in the 2015 Act and will come under the stewardship of the new Regulatory Authority are -
- a new and independent, Legal Services Regulatory Authority with responsibility for oversight of both solicitors and barristers.
- an independent complaints system dealing with legal professional misconduct. This will provide a first port-of-call for the public in making complaints independent of the legal professional bodies. There will also be a new and independent Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Tribunal to adjudicate on serious misconduct in relation to both solicitors and barristers.
- an enhanced legal costs regime bolstered by a set of Legal Costs Principles and which places more extensive obligations on both solicitors and barristers to keep clients informed about the details of their legal costs. Separately, the new Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicator will assume the role of the existing Office of the Taxing-Master and keep a public register of its legal costs determinations.
- a framework for new legal business models. These new business structures will include public consultation and the early introduction of “Legal Partnerships” between barristers and solicitors or between barristers themselves. Provision is also made for the introduction of “Limited Liability Partnerships”. Lawyers will now, as a matter of law, be able to avail of the new legal business models and to operate them freely. The more traditional forms of legal practice will, of course, remain available to practitioners but now as a matter of greater choice. A pathway is also provided under the 2015 Act for the introduction, on foot of formal research and public consultations, of “Multi-Disciplinary Practices” whereby services can be provided at more competitive cost by legal and non-legal service providers together.