The recent case of exploited Brazilian workers would never have come to court without the work of a solicitor prepared to do it without any real prospect of pay, according to the new President of the Law Society. Ms Geraldine Clarke said she would be working during her year's term of office to correct the impression that members of the profession put their own interests first.
"I will make it a priority during my year in office to try to redress the balance and to highlight the viluable contribution that solicitors make to society," she said.
"I find the allegation that we, as lawyers and officers of the court, are willing to sacrifice the interests of our clients and the public in furtherance of our own self-interest simply offensive".
She said there had been much ill-informed comment about the profession, which was "simplistic and misleading".
Speaking after her election yesterday, Ms Clarke said the case of the exploited Brazilian workers was a "small telling example" of how good work by lawyers was not recognised. The workers' solicitors had worked for nothing, but there had been no public acknowledgment of their role and the hard work they had put in on a pro-bono basis (the pro-bono work was,in fact, reported in both The Irish Times and on RTE Radio).
Ms Clarke is a partner in the law firm Gleeson McGrath Baldwin.