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GAZETTE
N E W S
The New Director General
MARCH 1995
Ken Murphy's career to date has in
many respects constituted an ideal
preparation for the challenging role of
Director General of the Law Society.
Over a decade on the Law Society
Council has given him a sound
understanding both of the Law Society
and of the issues facing the
profession. He has received the
support of over 1,000 voters in each of
the last three Council elections which
suggests that he is in touch with the
views of the Society's members,
something crucial for a Director
General.
His background in a variety of
practice areas, his feel for the media
gained through years of writing in The
Irish Times and elsewhere, his years
in Brussels and his management and
administration experience as a partner
in a solicitors firm with a staff more
than three times larger than the Law
Society, will all be of use to him as
Director General.
It seems appropriate that, after a break
of some decades, a solicitor should,
once again, be the Law Society's chief
executive. It is fitting also, given the
current age profile of the profession,
, that the Law Society should turn to a
Director General in his thirties. It
seems a reasonable assumption that, at
38, he has been appointed Director
General at a considerably younger age
than any of his predecessors.
Having been educated at Terenure
College and University College
Dublin, where he obtained an Honours
BA in English and Philosophy in 1978,
he qualified as a solicitor in 1981. He
j
is married to
Yvonne Chapman
and
they have three children,
Gavin
(4),
Charlotte
(3) and
Rebecca
(6 months).
; Law Society Career
j
In November, 1994,
Ken Murphy
was
j
elected to the Law Society Council for
!
the eleventh time and was re-appointed
Ken Murphy, Director General
Chairman of the Education Committee.
He was first elected to the Council in
1983 as one of the youngest ever
Council members. Over the years, his
Law Society committee membership
has included Education, Education
Advisory, EU and International
Affairs, Younger Members and Justice
Media Awards (all as Chairman)
Registrars and Parliamentary (both as
Vice-Chairman), together with
Compensation Fund, Public Relations,
Professional Purposes, Practice
Management and Bar Liaison.
In 1993, he was the only Council
member to serve on both the
Compensation Fund Policy Review
Committee and the Education Policy
Review Committee.
As a Council member he was
responsible for a number of initiatives
including the Law Society stand at
successive Brighter Homes
Exhibitions and the Eurlegal
supplement to the Gazette. He also
initiated and has organised the Justice
Media Awards for the last three years.
As a Committee member of the
Society of Young Solicitors for a
number of years he organised
conferences in Windermere, Glasgow,
Cork and Mullingar. In 1986-87, as
Chairman of the SYS, he initiated and
organised a joint conference of
solicitors and barristers which was
apparently the first ever to take place
in the British Isles.
Professional Career
From 1978 to 1981 he served his
solicitor's apprenticeship with Hickey
Beauchamp Kirwan & O'Reilly.
Following qualification he worked for
a further 18 months with his former
master,
John F. Buckley,
in the areas
of conveyancing and landlord and
tenant law.
In 1983 he joined the Litigation
Department of A & L Goodbody and
for the next five years dealt with a
very wide variety of contentious
matters involving all sizes of cases in
all courts.
In 1988 he was chosen by his firm to
go to Brussels to set up and run A & L
Goodbody's office there. There are
over 100 non-Belgian law firms with
offices in Brussels and accordingly he
was able to meet and get to know
lawyers from many different
countries, thereby gaining insights
into the problems and changes
underway in the legal profession
internationally.
In the course of his four years in
Brussels he advised Irish clients on a
wide range of EU law matters,
particularly on competition law. He
also gained experience of lobbying
which he can now put to use on behalf
of the Law Society. During his years
as a practitioner in Brussels and
subsequently he wrote and lectured
regularly in Ireland, Europe and the
US on various legal subjects.
He was made a partner in A & L
Goodbody in 1990 and returned to the
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