This Law Society Skillnet Fee is applicable to all practicing solicitors working in the private sector. (The standard fee for this course is €125)

Aim and Objectives
The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act, 2015 is due to commence on 26 April and will have wide ranging implications for practitioners. This seminar will explore how the new framework will affect practice with a focus on Circuit Court applications and solicitors’ interaction with the Decision Support Service. It will offer practical guidance on the new processes. 

Topics and Issues to be covered

• The Decision Support Service – solicitors’ interaction
  -DSS registers
  -Codes of Practice
  -Online process
  -Reporting duties
• Circuit Court application - Court forms and processes
• Enduring Powers of Attorney – guidance for solicitor
• Resources

Chairperson/Speaker
Aine Hynes SC, St John Solicitors
Áine is a partner in public and administrative law in St.John Solicitors.  Áine has been a member of the Council of the Law Society and many of its committees (which include Litigation, Regulation of Practice and Education) since 2007 and served as President of the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association (2016 - 2017). She was appointed by Minister Lynch to the Expert Steering Group on the Review of the Mental Health Act 2001 (2012-2015) and was a member of the Regional Advisory Board of the National Advocacy Service (2013-2017). In May 2022, she was appointed by the Minister for Justice to the Civil Legal Aid Review Group. Áine currently chairs the Law Society Mental Health Law and Capacity Taskforce and has made extensive submissions to the department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth on appropriate amendments to the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015. Her novel submissions on transitional arrangements were accepted by the department, thus ensuring a more orderly transition from wardship to the new legal capacity framework. Áine was one of the first solicitors appointed Senior Counsel in October 2020, following a historic move permitting solicitors to be granted patents of precedence.

Speakers

Mark Felton, Felton McKnight Solicitors LLP
Mark qualified in 1992 and works extensively in the mental Health and Capacity areas. He is a member of the law Society Mental Health and Capacity Task force, a member of the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association Mental health and Capacity committee and a member of the Mental Health Commission legal representatives panel. He has wide experience in the dealing with the creation and registration and revocation of Enduring Powers of Attorney. Mark has a masters degree in Law from UCC which he obtained in 2015 in which he specifically focused on Mental Health and Capacity law.

Áine Flynn, Director of the Decision Support Service, Mental Health Commission
Áine Flynn is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin. She is a solicitor and former partner in Dublin firm KOD Lyons. While in private practice she specialised in public interest law, including mental health and capacity. She has been a member of the Human Rights Committee of the Law Society of Ireland since 2012. Prior to her present appointment, she was a member of the Law Society’s Mental Health and Capacity Task Force. In October 2017, Áine commenced in post as the first Director of the Decision Support Service under the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015.

James Finn, Strategy & Reform Directorate, Courts Service
Jim Finn is the head of the Legislation and Rules Unit of the Courts Service and he has over 40 years’ experience in the Courts Service. He has worked in a number of front-line court offices as well as in administrative and support areas in the Service. He has had senior roles in the Probate Office, the Office of the Accountant of Courts of Justice, the Examiner’s Office and the Circuit and District Courts Directorate. Jim is a qualified barrister and was Registrar of Wards of Court from 2010 until 2019 before his assignment to the Legislation and Rules Unit.

Other speakes TBC

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