The legal profession in Troikaland: before and after the Irish bailout

Abstract

Ireland is feeling a chill wind of austerity emanating from ‘the Troika’; the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. However, this paper concerns an altogether different Troika: an ‘Unholy Trinity’ of bankers, property developers and lawyers. It is argued herein that the combined activities of this Unholy Trinity contributed to the growth of the property bubble, the banking crisis and Ireland's subsequent economic collapse. Whilst the roles of bankers and property developers in the demise of Ireland's ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy have been extensively documented, the role of lawyers has received less attention. This paper seeks to correct the current discursive imbalance. First, the paper outlines the ‘Unholy Trinity’ hypothesis which postulates the existence of a tripartite grouping of social actors that contributed to the Irish economic collapse. A case study of Michael Lynn, property-developer-lawyer is presented, which examines the regulatory failings which Lynn manipulated so effectively. A brief account is also given of the sequence of events which culminated in the receipt of the Troika bailout. Finally, the paper assesses whether the reforms contained in the Legal Services Regulation Bill (LSRB) 2011 will be sufficient to rectify the regulatory failures which are identified herein.