Madam, - It was with utter dismay that I read the comments attributed over the weekend to the director general of the Law Society, Ken Murphy, to the effect that he found it "surprising, to say the least" that banks chose to accept an undertaking and certificate of title from a solicitor acting on his own behalf.
As a practising solicitor for more than 25 years I am astounded that the Law Society would suggest that solicitors can be trusted when acting for third parties, but that when they are acting for themselves, you had better watch out. I am equally astounded that the sanction for a solicitor with a significant deficit in his client account is not, as I would have assumed, that the High Court be asked to strike him from the register, but rather the imposition of a paltry fine.
It is extremely regrettable that, as in other professions, a tiny minority of solicitors are crooks. Any attempt to apportion blame to anyone else for their contemptible behaviour is reprehensible.
There are enough people questioning whether the Law Society can continue to act as a representative body and as a regulator without the society itself so eloquently making the case for them. - Yours, etc,
EUGENE McCAGUE, Chairman, Arthur Cox, Earlsfort Centre, Dublin 2.