Solicitor Senior Counsel – A GAME CHANGER? Kevin O’Higgins tracked down our celebrated colleagues to understand why they seized the opportunity to make legal history
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hen then Minister for Justice Alan Shatter set about (allegedly in his kitchen) drafting the Legal Services Bill in or around 2012 very few would have expected that among its radical proposals would be an enabling provision entitling solicitors to apply for the so-called grant of precedence or Senior Counsel. is detractors (allegedly from the ar) ridiculed the provision and styled it as self promotion for the former solicitor’s ambitions after politics to apply for and become the first Solicitor Senior Counsel. It is fair also to acknowledge that such a provision was not something on the Law Society wish list and so when it emerged in the Bill it was a welcome surprise. Yet, one wondered what, if any, take up there might be for it. For decades we had seen our branch of the profession overlooked for udicial appointments – particularly in the Superior Courts and statistically very few solicitors were applying. This is changing and for sure, the emergence of the Solicitor Senior Counsel brand will herald a more confident profession, imbuing a new found equality of esteem between the Bar and ourselves and the clients for whom we serve. A clear recognition that, while we offer something different to the ar, we also offer excellence. Yet the brave 47 or so of our colleagues who applied for the position of Senior Counsel would have had a pretty high octane uly of 2 2 with the cut-off for applications at the end of that month. For the application process and completion of the application form is not for the faint hearted. One of the questions alone posits:
6 the Parchment
Please give a brief description of your current legal role, including an overview of the main types of cases you have been involved in over the past 5 years, the percentage breakdown identifying courts and urisdictions e.g. Irish Supreme Court , Irish Court of ppeal , Irish igh Court and EC and any specialisms. Please list below a minimum of to a ma imum of reported cases in which you have been involved recently. And without question there is nowhere to hide, as each applicant has to bear their soul, but more particularly, back it up with vouched corroborative material of proven excellence in their particular sphere. One such application ran to a thousand pages. So hats off to all those who applied and for the 1 of our colleagues who, on this occasion, were successful. As the President of the Law Society ichele oyle remarked: This is a significant moment in Ireland’s legal history. I warmly congratulate each colleague who has been deemed to demonstrate the standard of excellence required which entitles the solicitor to use the designation senior counsel. It is an important achievement, both for the individual solicitors and for the profession as a whole.” The 17 who had a fretful Summer were Éamonn Conlon, Paul Egan, Patrick Groarke, Richard Hammond, Bill Holohan, Áine Hynes, Liam Kennedy, Rory Kirrane, Cormac Little, James MacGuill, Roger Murray, Helen Noble, Bernard O’Connor, Vincent Power, Dara Robinson, Michael Staines and Damien M.P. Tansey. Six of the solicitors work for some of Ireland’s biggest law firms – Éamonn Conlon, Liam ennedy and incent Power are partners at A L oodbody, Rory irrane
