Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Bill allows for the introduction of a range of new business models. These include legal partnerships which are partnerships between solicitors and barristers or between barristers only and multidisciplinary practices and which allow for the provision of legal and other services by one firm. As a result of amendment No. 99 and other amendments tabled, the Bill will provide for the introduction of limited liability partnerships in respect of both solicitors partnerships and legal partnerships.

I will deal with the contextually minor amendments in this grouping before discussing amendment Nos. 100 and 101. As per amendment No. 102, complaints relating to the proposed business models will be handled by the authority. Under amendments Nos. 103 and 105, a small fee may be charged by the authority concerning the notification of a legal partnership or a multidisciplinary partnership that is about to commence business. Obviously, such partnerships will have to have strict indemnity insurance. A further amendment in this grouping aims to bring the Bill into line with the new personal insolvency culture whereby a person should no longer be prevented from operating within a business environment merely because he or she has entered into a formal debt arrangement.

I will now deal with amendments Nos. 100 and 101. The relevant sections currently provide that no professional code which is a code of practice drawn up by a legal professional body such as the Law Society of Ireland or the Bar Council shall prevent a legal practitioner from providing legal services within a legal partnership or a multidisciplinary practice. Senators will be aware that a legal partnership is a partnership between either solicitors and barristers or between barristers only. It is a new creature of this Bill which has been prohibited up to now under professional rules. Multidisciplinary practices are firms that will be able to provide both legal and other services together under one roof. These are also currently prohibited under professional rules and the Bill provides for their introduction, subject to the outcome of a formal public consultation process under Part 8. I was advised by the Attorney General that the approach in the Bill, as published, which seeks to directly interfere with the professional codes of the legal professional bodies is at high risk of vulnerability to legal challenge on the grounds of undue interference with the professional bodies' constitutional rights of association. The original sections would, in effect, dictate to the legal professional bodies who they may include and exclude from their membership and it is this, in particular, that opens up the provisions to the possibility of successful legal challenge. As it is understood that such a legal challenge is not unlikely and in the interests of achieving the overall goal of the Bill, I am tabling these amendments because these new provisions still provide, as a matter of law, that barristers and solicitors may provide their services through one of the new business models, that is, they will have a statutory right to do so but the provisions have been reworked so as to avoid the risk of undue interference in the legal professional bodies' control over their own membership. In effect, this will mean that any lawyers who want to work through legal partnerships, multidisciplinary practices or limited liability partnerships or as employees will be able to do so. It will clearly remain the right of the legal professional bodies to decide whether such lawyers can also become members of their associations, such as, for example, the Law Library. However, Senators should note that subsection (2) of both revised sections explicitly prevents any legal professional bodies from preventing their own members from doing business with other lawyers who choose to operate within the new business models. These are very important provisions.