The Gazette 1996

GAZETTE

JULY 1996

N E W S

The New Judges of the Circuit Court

Eight new judges of the Circuit Court were sworn in on Wednesday, 25 July 1996 in the Supreme Court. The new judges were His Honour Judge Anthony Kennedy, His Honour Judge Kevin Haugh, His Honour Judge John Buckley, His Honour Judge Raymond Groarke, Her Honour Judge Alison Lindsay, Her Honour Judge Elizabeth Dunne, His Honour Frank O'Donnell, His Honour Michael White. Ms. Olive Buttimer will be sworn in at a later date. Below we profile the careers of the three solicitor judges. His Honour Judge John F Buckley His Honour Judge John Buckley was born in Dublin in 1931. Educated at Synge Street CBS and University College Dublin where in brief absences from Dramsoc, the L and H & College Politics, he took the degrees of BA and LLB. He was admitted a solicitor in the Trinity term of 1956. He subsequently worked as an assistant solicitor for the firms of C B W Boyle & Son and George J Colley & Company in Dublin, R A Osborne & Co. in Athy and Hickey & O'Reilly in Dublin. He became a partner in Hickey &O'Reilly in 1968 and a partner in the new firm of Hickey Beauchamp Kirwan &O'Reilly in 1973 and remained a partner until 1987. The new judge was appointed a part- time Commissioner of the Law Reform Commission in 1987 and thereupon left the partnership but remained as a Consultant with Hickey Beauchamp Kirwan & O'Reilly, subsequently Beauchamps, from 1987 until his appointment to the Circuit Court Bench.

L-r: His Honour judge Michael White, His Honour judge John Buckley, His Honour Judge Frank O'Donnell

bent on following in her father's footsteps, being a law student at UCD. His leisure interests are sports, particularly cricket where he has been co-ordinator of schoolboy cricket in the Leinster Cricket Club for the last five years, mucic, theatre, films and travel.

He was the Law Society's Lecturer in Conveyancing and Land Law from 1962 to 1972 and served as a member of the Council of the Law Society from 1973 to 1987. During that time he served as Chairman of the Education, Public Relations and Premises Committees and was Junior Vice President of the Society in 1984/85. He was a member of the Council of the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association from 1965 onwards and was President in 1978/79. He was Chairman of the Committee on Legal Education and Continuing Legal Education of the International Bar Association from 1981 to 1985 and a member of the Council of the Section from 1982 onwards. He served as Chairman of the Section from 1992 to 1994 and since 1994 has been an Assistant Treasurer of the International Bar Association. While the new judge has largely practised in the area of conveyancing and land law, having been brought up as a general practitioner he has never fully succumbed to the temptations of specialisation and has continued to practise in other areas of law, notably in defamation and latterly professional negligence claims. He is married with three children one of whom seems

His Honour Judge Frank O'Donnell

His Honour Judge Frank O'Donnell was born in Co. Donegal. Educated in Castleknock College, a graduate of UCD (BCL 1963) and Harvard Law School (LL.M 1966), he qualified as a solicitor in 1964 and is a partner in the firm of Bell Branigan O'Donnell & O'Brien. Frank O'Donnell was President of the Law Society in 1984/85 and has served as Chairman of the Registrar's Committee, Compensation Fund Committee, Public Relations Committee and the Finance Committee. Prior to his elevation to the Bench he was chairman of the Arbitration Committee which is investigating the possibility of promoting Ireland as a forum for international arbitrations. He was also a member of the Criminal Injuries

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