€2k a week for Law Society of Ireland president

The director general of the Law Society of Ireland has outlined why the society’s president receives payments of more than €2,000 per week from the society for the part-time role.

Cork solicitor Simon Murphy succeeded Kevin O’Higgins to become the society’s president last month, and will serve until next November.

Director general Ken Murphy has confirmed that the annual payments to the office of president have remained at €110,000 — which works out at €2,115 per week.

Last month, it was revealed that Simon Murphy’s former counterpart in the IFA, Eddie Downey, received an annual salary of €147,000, or more than €2,800 per week.

The annual Law Society accounts does not disclose Ken Murphy’s salary, but when asked to comment on the payment to the post of president, he said: “The purpose of this payment is to enable the president to take the considerable time out from his/her practice required by this demanding role and to allow for employment of additional solicitor(s) in his/her firm if necessary.”

The society’s annual report confirms a total of 15 solicitors have been struck off in the year to the end of August.

There were 16 solicitors struck off in 2014/13.

Ken Murphy said: “There is no direct relationship between the number of solicitors struck off in any particular calendar year with the level of misconduct in that year.”

He said no particular significance should be attached to the small variations in the number of solicitors struck off in a particular year.

The Legal Services Bill passed all stages at the Oireachtas before Christmas and the new authority is due to come into operation early in 2016.

The new regime will allow a new independent public complaints regime and a new single disciplinary tribunal for solicitors and barristers, where the public will no longer make complaints through the legal representative bodies as happens at present.

The Law Society’s annual report also records the number of complaints against solicitors last year fell 62%, from 1,039 to 390.

The report, however, states that disciplinary case volumes remain high, with the society making 115 applications to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in 2014.

Ken Murphy said the 62% drop relates to complaints about solicitors’ undertakings.

He said there are a number of factors accounting for the decline — the economic cycle; the enactment of regulations which restricted the right of solicitors to give undertakings in relation to transactions in which the solicitor or a connected person has a beneficial interest and the continued publication of disciplinary outcomes.

The Law Society recorded a surplus of €4.55m last year as revenues marginally increased to €22.22m.

The surplus is mainly attributable to the society recording a €3.5m increase in the book value of its property.

Salaries for the 135 staff at the organisation totalled €8.25m, or an average of just over €61,000 each.