Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 February 2014

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed)

11:20 am

Photo of Alan ShatterAlan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 172:


In page 67, between lines 22 and 23, to insert the following:
“PART 8
OBLIGATIONS OF PRACTISING BARRISTERS
Roll of practising barristers
76.(1) The Authority shall—(a) set up and maintain a roll of practising barristers (in this Part referred to as the “roll”), and
(b) within six months of the commencement date, enter on the roll the name of, and additional information in respect of, every person who is, on the commencement date, a practising barrister.(2) The Authority shall make a copy of the roll available at its principal office during normal working hours to members of the public for inspection free of charge.
(3) If the roll is kept in an electronic or other non-written form, the Authority may comply with its obligation under subsection (2) by making it publicly available on its website.
(4) An entry on the roll shall, in respect of each practising barrister—(a) contain such information as is required by this Part,
(b) contain such additional information as may be prescribed under subsection (5),
(c) specify whether he or she is a member of the Law Library, and
(d) specify whether he or she is in the full time service of the State.(5) The Authority may, having regard to the objectives specified in section 9(4), prescribe additional information in relation to the professional qualifications and areas of expertise of the practising barrister concerned that is to be contained in an entry on the roll.
(6) In this Part—
“additional information”, in relation to a practising barrister, means the additional information relating to him or her that is prescribed under subsection (5);
“commencement date” means the date on which this section comes into operation.”.
Part 8 makes the legal services regulatory authority, and not the Bar Council, responsible for the keeping of the roll of practising barristers. This is a policy decision based on the fact that the Bar Council does not wish to be held responsible for maintaining a roll or collecting a levy payment from barristers who do not come under its aegis as members of the Law Library. This Bill will comprehend suitably qualified persons who have been duly called to the Bar and who practise as barristers outside the so-called traditional practise model of membership of the Law Library. Non-Law Library members such as in-house counsel, partners in a legal firm or a multidisciplinary practice and other sole practitioners will, therefore, come under the roll of practising barristers. I wish to recall, as previously indicated, that I will be returning on Report Stage to the interpretation provisions in section 2 as it relates to important terms such as those of “practising barrister” and “legal services” in order to reflect the Bill’s development, including during this current Committee Stage consideration process.
I would now like to take the committee as briefly as possible through the Part as presented to the committee today. Section 76, inserted by amendment No.172, provides that the new legal services regulation authority will set up and maintain a publicly accessible roll of practising barristers. Every suitably qualified person who intends to so practice will be required to apply to the authority to have their name entered on the roll in accordance with section 77.
Section 78, based on section 79 in the published Bill, deals with the variation of entries on the roll. The section provides for the removal of a person’s name from the roll for a variety of serious disciplinary related breaches, or where requested by the person, or upon the death of the person. The section is essentially pro formaand has only been amended to reflect the fact that the authority and not the Bar Council will be in charge of the roll. I will also have to make a small correction to this section on Report Stage to remove the reference to section 38(10), which was deleted at last month’s committee sitting and so should be referenced no longer.

New sections 79 and 80 provide that unqualified persons and persons whose names are not properly on the roll of practising barristers will face sanction if they attempt or pretend to practise as barristers. This ensures that equivalent provisions to those already in place for solicitors under the Solicitors Acts are also in place for barristers.

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