Irish Law Society Slams Reforms Proposed By ICA

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

03 August 2005

Ireland's Law Society has responded negatively to the Clementi-style reforms proposed by the Irish Competition Authority (ICA) in its February report on reforming the legal services sector.

Among the changes put forward by the ICA were the creation of an independent body to handle complaints, the creation of a Legal Services Commission to either directly regulate or oversee the regulation of the legal services sector, and allowing partnerships between solicitors and barristers and multi-disciplinary partnerships.

However, in a statement released late last month, the Law Society announced that:

"The Society is critical of the Authority's inconsistent uses of evidence in two main respects. Firstly, on the subject of the competitiveness of the market for solicitors' services in Ireland, the Authority seems very reluctant to draw the inevitable conclusion, based on the evidence in its own preliminary report, that the market is highly competitive."

"Secondly, in relation to the system of regulation of the legal profession and on other matters, the Authority disregards the need for real evidence rather than simple assertions. It proceeds to make recommendations based on preconceptions and ideology rather than on reality and a careful assessment of facts. In this and in other respects the Competition Authority has failed to follow the principles of good regulatory practice set out in the Government's Regulating Better White Paper of January 2004."

The statement concluded by announcing that:

"It is the Society's hope that members of the Government will give full consideration to the views of the Society, as well as those of the Competition Authority, before reaching a conclusion on where the public interest lies on the various matters being studied."

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