THE KING’S Inns has disbarred Patrick Russell from practising as a barrister following a finding of professional misconduct against him by its disciplinary committee.
It is the first time in more than a decade that a barrister has been struck off.
Most complaints against lawyers are made against solicitors. Barristers are not allowed to handle clients’ money, which must go through solicitors, so complaints of dishonesty against barristers rarely arise.
The King’s Inns concluded in this case that Mr Russell’s “behaviour was fundamentally dishonest from beginning to end. It tends to bring the profession of barrister into disrepute. It was unethical in the extreme and was prejudicial to the administration of justice”.
Two complaints were sent to the professional validation body by the Bar Council last August after its professional practice committee upheld complaints by one of Mr Russell’s clients.
The Bar Council cannot strike a barrister off once he or she has been called to the bar – only the King’s Inns can do so.
The disciplinary committee of the King’s Inns upheld the complaints after a hearing at which Mr Russell did not appear or make submissions. It recommended to the ruling body of the King’s Inns, the Benchers, that he be struck off, and the decision to that effect was made on Wednesday.
One of the complaints related to a case in which Mr Russell had obtained money from a client and purported to conduct a Supreme Court appeal when he did not, and acted without the instructions of a solicitor though he had claimed to have such instructions.
The other was that he had failed to pay a fine of €25,000 imposed by the Bar Council following a previous complaint of misconduct.
“While acting without the instructions of a solicitor is not necessarily, in itself, a departure from proper standards of behaviour to the same degree as dishonesty, on the facts of the present case, it was an integral part of the deceit,” the King’s Inns ruling stated.
“Mr Russell received money from the complainant in respect of services which he did not perform. He created a fictitious appeal and lied about an appeal hearing. He constructed a false story of the involvement of a solicitor. He deceitfully informed the complainant that he had received offers in settlement of his claim.”
The committee found Mr Russell had met the complainant and accepted instructions from him without intervention of any solicitor in relation to a Supreme Court appeal. He falsely stated an appeal had been lodged, and falsely got the complainant to give him €2,500 towards its costs. He continued the deceit by telling the complainant the Supreme Court had ruled in his favour and that offers of settlement had been made in relation to his claim.
He concocted a false final offer and got the complainant to sign a document in purported settlement of his claim, the King’s Inns found.
Mr Russell had acted as a tax adviser and was named in court last November in connection with a claim by the Revenue Commissioners against musical duo Foster and Allen for unpaid income taxes and penalties between 1986 and 1997 amounting to €3 million.
They claimed they had each paid Mr Russell €50,000 to settle in full their tax liabilities and he had supplied them with a letter from Revenue saying their tax affairs were in order. Revenue had never received the money and the letter was forged, they said.
In June last year another musician, Patrick Griffin, claimed in the High Court he had transferred €580,000 to Mr Russell to pay the Revenue and that Mr Russell misappropriated that sum. Mr Russell, who was joined as a notice party in the action, agreed he had received €580,000 from Mr Griffin. The money was “lost” and he did not have it, he said.