Long service of Rory O’Donnell is celebrated
The long service of solicitor Rory O’Donnell has been marked with a celebration dinner in the President’s suite at Blackhall Place (3 July).
The Conveyancing Committee honoured founding member Rory’s remarkable service of over 50 years.
Rory and his wife Fedelma Butler (small picture) were guests of honour.
Rory wrote in 2023 that the first he heard of the Conveyancing Committee was through a pub chat with John Buckley and Tony Osborne in 1974.
Tony Osborne was due to become Law Society President in 1974/75 and floated the idea of the formation of a committee that would deal with conveyancing.
“John and I thought it was a great idea,” said Rory, who promptly joined on the committee’s formation.
Updating standard documents
The committee took over the review and updating of the Law Society standard documents such as contract, requisitions, building agreement, and so on.
These matters previously had been dealt with by ad hoc groups and the continuity of personnel reviewing the forms was most helpful.
The CC was never elitist, Rory recalled.
“From the beginning it included a mix of solicitors of varying experience from around the country. It also included some solicitors who only dealt with conveyancing. These were almost always from bigger firms.
“The combination of having some specialists and others with mixed experience worked very well in reaching balanced guidelines,” he said.
At the time the committee was formed, the Law Society had little or no relationship with many of the Government departments and offices.
“This changed when Jim Ivers was Director General,” said Rory.
Master networker
“He was a master networker and seemed to know every civil servant we met in any Government office, and the history of their career.
“Jim was a great help in gradually establishing lines of communication with different offices instead of exchanging hostile correspondence, which had been the norm up to then.”
The committee cannot determine matters of law but has always aimed to give guidance and to issue Practice Notes on problem areas, Rory explained.
It also sought to resolve disputes between colleagues over conveyancing issues where possible.
Resolve an impasse
Personal intervention by telephone often helped to resolve an impasse, said Rory.
“In my opinion the committee has been a great success,” he added.
“When I commenced practice in Dublin in the summer of 1961 the purchasers of new houses normally paid the fees of the builder’s solicitor, the lender’s solicitor and, of course, their own solicitor.
“The Government prohibited the first and the Conveyancing Committee was instrumental in the introduction of the Certificate of Title scheme, which eliminated the second.
“Perhaps its most notable recent achievement was the repeal of the provisions of the Land & Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009, which required the registration of easements.
“Those provisions had caused a great deal of trouble for solicitors and their clients.
“There were many excellent solicitors who were members over the years and contributed a great deal to the work of the committee, and it would be impossible –and certainly unwise – to try to list them all.
“However, in my opinion the most significant figure over the years was the late John F Buckley, who made an enormous contribution from the very beginning until some months before he died in February 2017,” said Rory.
While the committee could not please everyone, its members and consultants were volunteers and generously gave their time despite the never-ending demands of practice and life, he concluded.