Decision record
Peter Kenny
Allegation / charges
In the matter of Peter Kenny, a solicitor formerly practising as Kenny Associates, College Street, Carlow, Co Carlow, and in the matter of the Solicitors Acts 1954-2011 [8864/DT109/14 and High Court record 2015 no 70 SA] Law Society of Ireland (applicant) Peter Kenny (respondent solicitor) On 4 March 2015, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found the respondent solicitor guilty of misconduct in his practice as a solicitor in that he: 1) Caused or allowed a deficit on the client account totalling €369,460 as at 18 October 2013, 2) Breached regulation (7)(1)(a) of the Solicitors Accounts Regulations , as amended, by creating debit balances of €124,665.36 as at 18 October 2013, 3) Breached regulation 7(1) of the Solicitors Accounts Regulations by withdrawing moneys on account of fees without the consent of the client, 4) Breached regulation 11 of the Solicitors Accounts Regulations by failing to furnish bills of costs to clients and by the withdrawal of moneys not due to the respondent solicitor, 5) Breached regulation 10(5) of the Solicitors Accounts Regulations by the creation of credit balances on the office account of €274,042 as at 18 October 2013, 6) Breached regulation 12 of the Solicitors Accounts Regulations by the failure to maintain such relevant supporting documents that could vouch moneys taken as solicitor/client fees, 7) Breached regulation 12 of the Solicitors Accounts Regulations , in that the client ledger listing did not properly detail the full liabilities to clients because of the entries made for fee notes that had not been delivered to the client or agreed with them, 8) Had substantial noncompliance with section 68 of the Solicitors (Amendment) Act 1994 , in that clients were not informed of the party-and-party costs recovered, nor were they given full account details of all moneys spent on their behalf. The tribunal ordered that the matter go forward to the High Court and, on 20 July 2015, the President of the High Court ordered that: 1) The name of the respondent solicitor shall be struck from the Roll of Solicitors, 2) The Society do recover the costs of the High Court proceedings and the costs of the proceedings before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal as against the respondent when taxed or ascertained.
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found Peter Kenny guilty of misconduct involving a client account deficit of €369,460 and multiple breaches of the Solicitors Accounts Regulations and section 68 of the Solicitors (Amendment) Act 1994. The matter was referred to the High Court, which on 20 July 2015 ordered his name struck from the Roll of Solicitors and awarded costs of the High Court and Tribunal proceedings to the Society, to be taxed or ascertained. No express finding of dishonesty was recorded.
Duties found breached:
- No conflict between current clients
- No improper use of client money
- Account for interest on client money
- Not misrepresent regulated status
⚠ 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?viewAll=True