Michael O’Neill
Allegation / charges
In the matter of Michael O’Neill, a solicitor previously practising as Michael O’Neill at Kingscourt, 33 South Main Street, Naas, Co Kildare, and in the matter of the Solicitors Acts 1954-2011 [2842/DT71/15; 2842/DT79/15; and High Court record 2017 no 61 SA] Law Society of Ireland (applicant) Michael O’Neill (respondent solicitor) On 2 March 2017, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found the respondent solicitor guilty of misconduct in his practice as a solicitor in that he: 1) Failed to keep record books of account, in breach of regulation 12 of the Solicitors Accounts Regulations , thereby making it difficult to ascertain the true position of client funds in the practice, 2) Allowed a deficit of client funds totalling €521,142 as of 31 May 2014 to arise in his practice, 3) Made round-sum transfers in the client account on a regular basis (207 transfers in a two-year period) purportedly as fees, but failed to post any fee notes in the two year period, 4) Failed to ensure there was furnished to the Society a closing accountant’s report, as required by regulation 26(2) of the Solicitors Accounts Regulations in a timely manner or at all, having ceased practice on 4 August 2014. The tribunal ordered that the matters be sent forward to the High Court and, in High Court record 2017 no 61 SA on 17 July 2017, the High Court ordered that: 1) The respondent solicitor is not a fit person to be a member of the solicitors’ profession, 2) The name of the respondent solicitor shall be struck from the Roll of Solicitors, 3) The Law Society recover the costs of the proceedings and the costs of the proceedings before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, to include witness expenses when taxed or ascertained.
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found Michael O'Neill guilty of misconduct for failing to keep proper books of account, allowing a client funds deficit of €521,142, making 207 round-sum transfers described as fees without any fee notes, and failing to furnish a closing accountant's report after ceasing practice. The matters were sent to the High Court, which found him not a fit person to be a solicitor, ordered his name struck from the Roll, and awarded the Law Society its costs of the High Court and Tribunal proceedings including witness expenses when taxed or ascertained. No express finding of dishonesty was recorded.
Duties found breached:
⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["extracted_from_register_summary"]
Duties engaged
Documents
No documents recorded.
Source: https://www.lawsociety.ie/Public/disciplinarysearch/