Joan Quinn
Allegation / charges
In the matter of Joan Quinn, a solicitor formerly practising as Quinn & Co, Solicitors, at 23A The Village Green, Tallaght, Dublin 24, and in the matter of the Solicitors Acts 1954-2008 [6646/DT25/09 and High Court Record 2009 no 82 SA] Law Society of Ireland (applicant) Joan Quinn (respondent solicitor) On 9 June 2009, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found the respondent solicitor guilty of misconduct in her practice as a solicitor in that she: a) Caused and allowed a deficit on the client account to arise in the sum of €918,060 as at 4 February 2008, b) Permitted a deficit on the client account to arise due to unallocated transfers to office account of €722,263 and caused and allowed a debit balance in the sum of €195,797, c) Caused claims in the sum of €937,576.33 to be paid from the compensation fund, d) Caused a net sum of €303,076, after taking account of recoveries of €634,500, to be paid from the compensation fund, e) Caused and permitted transfers from client account to office account without there being any valid reason or invoice to transfer the said money, and in doing so breached regulation 7(i)(ii) and regulation 7(i)(iii), f) Permitted a debit balance to arise on the estate of a deceased named client of €195,797, in breach of regulation 7(2), g) Caused a debit balance to appear on the estate of a deceased named client by paying out two cheques in the sum of €225,000 each to an executor, h) Caused and permitted fees, not invoiced, to be held in the client account amounting to the sum of €255,038, which were originally not invoiced and posted to the books of account, in breach of regulation 5(2)(c). The tribunal directed: i) That the respondent solicitor is not a fit person to be a member of the solicitors’ profession, ii) That the name of the respondent solicitor be struck off the Roll of Solicitors. The tribunal directed that the matter be referred forward to the High Court and, on 12 October 2009, the President of the High Court ordered: 1) That the name of the respondent solicitor shall be struck from the Roll of Solicitors, 2) The court made no order as to the costs of the proceedings herein.
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found Joan Quinn guilty of misconduct including causing a large deficit on client account, improper transfers to office account, and causing significant claims against the compensation fund. The Tribunal found her not a fit person to be a solicitor and directed she be struck off. The High Court ordered her name struck from the Roll on 12 October 2009 with no order as to costs. No express finding of dishonesty was recorded in the text.
Duties found breached:
- No improper use of client money
- Prompt accounting and return of money
- Account for interest on client money
⚠ 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/