Brian Johnston
Allegation / charges
In the matter of Brian Johnston, a solicitor formerly practising as Brian Johnston & Co, Solicitors, 79 Park Street, Dundalk, Co Louth and in the matter of the Solicitors Acts 1954-2008 [6927/DT78/09 and High Court record no 2013/2 SA] Law Society of Ireland (applicant) Brian Johnston (respondent solicitor) On 16 November 2012, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found the respondent solicitor guilty of misconduct in his practice as a solicitor in that he: a) Failed to comply with instructions from the bank to ensure the bank obtained good and marketable title to properties and that the bank’s security was in place, b) Informed the bank in letters dated 14 August 2006, 15 August 2006, 18 August 2006 and 19 February 2007 that security requirements had been fulfilled, that the borrower had good marketable title to the properties over which it was anticipated that the bank would have a fixed charge, and that the bank’s security was in order, when this was not the case, c) Failed to adequately reply to the bank and the complainant in relation to the security position of properties to which the bank had loaned approximately €7 million, d) Failed to reply to correspondence from the Society dated 7 April 2008, 23 April 2008, 6 May 2008, 23 May 2008, 13 October 2008 and 23 October 2008, e) Failed to comply with a direction of the Complaints and Client Relations Committee made at its meeting of 3 September 2008 to respond within 48 hours, f) Failed to comply with a direction of the Complaints and Client Relations Committee at its meeting held on 7 October 2008 to send copies of the mortgages lodged at the Land Registry to the complainant, g) Stated in a letter to the Society dated 29 September 2008 and to the Complaints and Client Relations Committee at its meetings held on 7 October 2008 and 11 November 2008 that deeds of charges were lodged at the Land Registry for registration, when this was not the case, h) Failed to comply with a direction of the Complaints and Client Relations Committee made at its meeting held on 11 November 2008 to respond to the Society within 48 hours of the meeting to provide confirmation of the charges lodged in the Land Registry. The tribunal ordered that the matters go forward to the High Court, and the President of the High Court, on 21 January 2013, made the following orders: 1) That the name of the respondent solicitor shall be struck from the Roll of Solicitors, 2) That the Society do recover the costs of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal when taxed or ascertained, 3) That the Society do recover the costs of the High Court proceedings when taxed or ascertained.
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
Brian Johnston, a solicitor, was found guilty of misconduct by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal on 16 November 2012 for failing to comply with bank instructions, falsely representing that security and title were in order over properties with approximately €7 million in loans, falsely stating that charges had been lodged at the Land Registry, and repeatedly failing to respond to the Law Society and comply with its directions. The matter went to the High Court, which on 21 January 2013 ordered his name struck from the Roll of Solicitors and that the Society recover the costs of the Tribunal and High Court proceedings when taxed or ascertained. No express finding of dishonesty was recorded in the text.
Duties found breached:
- Proper basis for allegations
- No improper communication with the court
- Act only on proper, lawful instructions
- Complaints procedure and handling
- Handle inadvertently received material
⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["extracted_from_register_summary"]
Duties engaged
Other decisions involving this respondent
Matched by respondent name — may include a different person with the same name.
Documents
No documents recorded.
Source: https://www.lawsociety.ie/Public/disciplinarysearch/