The senior counsel, Mr Liam McKechnie, has been elected chairman of the Bar Council, narrowly defeating Mr Rory Brady, SC, writes Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent.
Mr McKechnie has been chairman of the council's professional practices committee for the past year. The nine-member committee was consulted during a dispute over legal representation for JMSE engineering at the Flood tribunal in February of this year.
Mr McKechnie has also served as vice-chairman of the Bar Council. Mr Brady has been vice-chairman for the past year.
Mr McKechnie (48) was called to the Bar in 1972 and to the Inner Bar in 1987. His practice has been mainly in the planning, commercial and medical areas and he represented William Dunne in the Dunne medical negligence case.
Originally from Cork, he still practises there regularly.
In the highly politicised world of the Law Library he is not regarded as having clearcut political associations. He is described by colleagues as "astute and competent".