Dublin Solicitor Eugene Kearns Struck Off Roll Over Misconduct

In a significant disciplinary outcome highlighting the stringent regulatory oversight governing the Irish legal profession, the High Court has ordered that Dublin solicitor Eugene Kearns be struck from the Roll of Solicitors. The ruling follows an application brought by the Law Society of Ireland under section 85 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015, consequent to findings of widespread misconduct determined by the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal earlier this year. Mr Kearns, who formerly operated Eugene P. Kearns Solicitors at 10 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1, was found guilty of multiple regulatory breaches spanning accounting integrity, anti-money laundering controls, and professional co-operation.

Unauthorised Estate Deductions and Accounting Breaches

Central to the Tribunal’s determination were persistent infractions of the Solicitors Accounts Regulations involving the administration of a deceased client's estate. The Disciplinary Tribunal established that across a nine-year period between 2013 and 2022, Mr Kearns improperly deducted €46,853.47, inclusive of VAT, from client funds in advance on 22 distinct occasions. These withdrawals were executed without delivering formal bills of costs or obtaining valid client authorisation. Under Irish law and strict regulatory frameworks, solicitors are prohibited from transferring client moneys into office accounts without clear, contemporaneous invoicing and explicit client notification, safeguards designed to maintain financial probity and protect beneficiaries.

The regulatory scrutiny further intensified after the Law Society’s Regulation of Practice Committee issued a formal direction instructing Mr Kearns to file an Ancillary Motion regarding his entitlement to legal fees in the disputed estate matter. Mr Kearns failed to comply with this regulatory directive. Subsequent regulatory inspections revealed that this lack of compliance extended beyond the single estate file, with investigative officers discovering the omission of formal invoices and mandatory Dispute Resolution Procedure disclosures across four separate client files inspected during practice audits.

Systemic Failures in Anti-Money Laundering Safeguards

Beyond accounting breaches, the High Court considered grave shortcomings in Mr Kearns' compliance with statutory anti-money laundering (AML) legislation. As designated persons under Irish criminal justice statutes, legal practitioners bear strict statutory obligations to forestall financial crime and verify the provenance of funds flowing through their practices. The Tribunal found that Mr Kearns failed to conduct a firm-wide business risk assessment, neglected to document risk profiles for individual clients, and failed to maintain required AML policies and internal controls, leaving the practice vulnerable to financial illicit conduct.

These systemic failures represent a direct breach of statutory duties overseen by the Legal Services Regulatory Authority and the Law Society of Ireland. Regulatory bodies in Ireland maintain that robust anti-money laundering procedures are not mere administrative technicalities, but vital safeguards underpinning public confidence in the legal system and the financial mechanisms operated by legal professionals.

Repeated Absence Before Regulatory Committees and Court Sanctions

The gravity of the misconduct was compounded by Mr Kearns' persistent refusal to engage with statutory regulatory inquiries. The Tribunal heard that he failed to attend five separate disciplinary hearings convened by the Regulation of Practice Committee between late 2023 and the end of 2024. These scheduled hearings took place in September 2023, October 2023, September 2024, October 2024, and December 2024. A sustained unwillingness to cooperate with professional governing bodies is regarded by the courts as an aggravating factor that fundamentally erodes a practitioner's fitness to hold a practising certificate.

Delivering its judgment in the proceedings titled Law Society of Ireland v Eugene Kearns, the High Court accepted the findings of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal’s report from 27 March 2026. The Court directed that Mr Kearns’ name be struck from the Roll of Solicitors, the ultimate professional penalty available to the judiciary. Furthermore, the court awarded total legal costs of €7,016 against Mr Kearns, comprising €3,762 for the Tribunal proceedings and €3,254 in respect of the Law Society’s High Court application, bringing an end to the disciplinary action.