Donald Binchy has been elected President of the Law Society of Ireland for 2011/12, with effect from Friday, 11th November, 2011.
He is joined at senior executive level by senior vice-president James McCourt and junior vice-president Simon Murphy.
Donald is a partner at the law firm Binchy Solicitors in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, founded by his grandfather James Binchy in 1918. He is a native of Clonmel, Co Tipperary, and is the third of four children born to Don and Joan Binchy (both deceased). Married to Claire, they have three children. He was educated in Ss Peter and Paul’s Primary School, Clonmel, and Clongowes Wood College, Co Kildare. He is a graduate of University College Dublin and holds a BCL law degree.
Apprenticed to his father Don (who served as Law Society President from 1990/91), he qualified as a solicitor at Blackhall Place, Dublin, in 1987. He spent two years, post qualification, engaged in IFSC-related work for the then law firm of Cawley, Sheerin, Wynne in Dublin.
Donald became a member of the Council of the Law Society of Ireland in 1994. He has served on many of the Society’s most senior committees, including the Business Law Committee, the Education Committee and the Education Policy Review Group, which renovated the education policy and methodology of the education of solicitors. In addition, he has served on the Regulation of Practice Committee, the Complaints and Client Relations Committee, the Finance Committee and the Professional Indemnity Insurance Committee.