Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent, profiles Judge Michael White, who will hear sentencing evidence today in the cases of the three young men convicted following the death of Brian Murphy outside Club Anabel in Dublin.
After the jury in the Brian Murphy case convicted three of the accused on the charge of violent disorder, and one of them of manslaughter, Judge Michael White said he would hear evidence on sentencing today. However, he added that he would reflect for at least a week before handing down the sentences.
Few doubt he will give the matter the most serious consideration, unswayed by media interest or personal sympathies. Judicial insiders consider the President of the Circuit Court, Mr Justice Esmond Smyth, made an inspired choice when he allocated Judge White to hear the case of the four "former Blackrock students", as they came to be known.
Judge White did not follow the usual route of rugby-playing school, UCD and the King's Inns on to the bench. With a decade of left-wing political activism and a successful career as a solicitor behind him, he is seen as outside the usual judicial mould.
He was born into a legal family in Carndonagh, Co Donegal, in 1953, and attended Carndonagh Boys' Secondary School until his Intermediate Certificate, attending Newbridge School as a boarder for his final two years of secondary education.
He studied law in UCD and with the Incorporated Law Society, qualifying as a solicitor in 1975. Initially he joined the family firm in Carndonagh, but left it in 1976 to establish the firm Michael D. White & Co, with Pat McCartan and Paula Scully.
There he developed expertise in criminal law, family law, landlord and tenant law, judicial review and constitutional law, building on the staples of rural practice he had acquired in Donegal, conveyancing, probate and civil litigation.
In 1987 he reconstituted his practice as sole practitioner, specialising in civil litigation, family law, labour law and industrial tribunals.
His professional record was seen as impeccable.
In 1996 he was one of the first three solicitors nominated to Circuit Court, during the tenure of the Rainbow Coalition. His former partner, Pat McCartan, was also appointed to the bench during that government.
Many observers saw a connection between their appointments and the presence in government of Democratic Left, formerly the Workers' Party, with which both solicitors were associated.
Judge White first became involved in socialist politics as a student in UCD, when he joined the radical law students' group, Law Students for Action. In 1972 he joined the Republican Club there, and the Workers' Party in 1978, where he favoured the dropping of "Sinn Féin" from its title in order to focus on the socialist aspect of the party.
He ran as a local authority candidate in June 1979, polling 600 votes. He ran for the Dáil in Dublin Central a number of times, first in June 1981, polling 1,803 votes. His vote dropped slightly the following election, but it rose to 2,161 in October 1982, when more than 50 per cent of his votes transferred to Tony Gregory.
His last outing on behalf of the party was in 1983.
Historically party sympathy and allegiance have played a significant role in judicial appointments, but few would argue that this has, in general, compromised the quality of the judiciary.
The partners in Michael D. White & Co both had reputations as excellent and hard-working solicitors, and have won nothing but praise for their qualities on the bench.
"When they were doing defence they prepared the best briefs going around," said a senior counsel specialising in criminal work. "He [Judge White\] was one of the major players in the field, and he did a lot of the leg-work on those cases."
A solicitor who also specialises in crime said, "He's a totally judicious guy, very fair. He has not resiled from ordinary life at all since becoming a judge. He follows under-age soccer and is very involved in club structures. His sons play."
Judge White has four sons, now in their late teens and early 20s, like the four young men tried before him in the Murphy case.
He has had to exercise his judiciousness in a previous high-profile case, where he sentenced George Redmond to a year's imprisonment for corruption. This was seen to balance the seriousness of the crime against the advanced years of the convicted man.
Before hearing criminal cases he spent some years as a Circuit Court judge working in its family court. These cases are heard in camera, with no media or public presence, but a professional working in that area and familiar with his judgments praised him highly.
He is seen as quite strict, and has handed down heavy sentences in the past, including jailing a Scottish national for 12 years for possessing €1.2 million worth of heroin. An addict was jailed for the mandatory 10 years for having a substantial cache of drugs in his flat.
However, a man who pleaded guilty to the robbery of a man who was murdered during the same incident was given community service by Judge White, who heard he had lived in fear of the man convicted of the murder.
He will hear pleas for mitigation today, where lawyers for the convicted three will point out that this is a first offence, and that they are unlikely to offend again.
Against that, a man died, and they fought the charge of violent disorder, of which they were all convicted, as well as the charge of manslaughter, of which only one was convicted.
All these elements will have to be put in the balance.