The High Court has suspended a solicitor from practising for 12 months over a “serious and extensive failure” to keep proper books and records.
Cormac Lohan, practising as Lohan and Co Solicitors, Garden Vale, Athlone, Co Westmeath, will also be allowed to work as a sole practitioner after his suspension has ended only if he can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Law Society that he has undergone continuing professional development and training courses on ethics.
Last year, a solicitors disciplinary tribunal (SDT) found him guilty of professional misconduct in relation to nine admitted allegations, including a failure to keep proper books and records which necessitated a Law Society accountant having to reconstruct client accounts.
The SDT recommended he should be granted only a restricted practising certificate and also pay a €15,000 fine.
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The matter came before Mr Justice Micheál O’Higgins at the High Court, who was told Mr Lohan, while admitting the breaches, believed the SDT penalties were disproportionate and would result in the closure of his practice. The Law Society said the SDT recommendations should be approved.
The society submitted there was a near total failure by Mr Lohan to maintain office account records.
The use of the office ledger included substantial transfers of money, unvouched at the time of the Law Society inspection, including the transfer of €387,000 of funds borrowed from a third-party company for the purchase of a house by Mr Lohan’s wife, the society said.
When the client account ledgers were reconstructed by the investigating accountants, serious issues were revealed including a shortfall of client money standing to the credit of clients of about €20,000, the society said.
Mr Lohan argued there was no loss of funds to any client and he was not guilty of any “dishonesty” offence whatsoever.
The judge said he had been the subject of several previous findings of misconduct against him involving, all told, five sets of previous disciplinary proceedings.
Among the mitigating factors here were that of the 27 initial charges against him, 18 had been withdrawn, he said. The withdrawn charges included the headline charge of an apparent deficit in client funds of €605,514 in February 2016.
“In my view, the fact that this headline charge was dropped is important. It fundamentally altered the nature and extent of the prosecution case against the solicitor,” the judge said.
The judge was prepared to give him one more chance, on terms, to keep alive the possibility that he can continue to practise as a sole practitioner.
The 12-month suspension from practise will end in March 2025 as the society made its court application last March, the judge said.
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