Minutes of the Council of the Law Society of Northern Ireland show that on 9 September 2026 the Council authorised the deputy chief executive to perform and discharge all duties and responsibilities of the chief executive. This expressly includes the statutory functions of Registrar, Principal Accounting Officer and Secretary to the Council.

No announcement of this change was made to members. That remains the case more than five weeks after 17 September, when the court order the Society said prevented it from giving members information was set aside. The silence continued through the SGM that took place on 19 October. Members spent four and a half hours debating the leadership of the Society and passed a vote of no confidence. To the best of our knowledge, they were not told that the chief executive’s functions had been transferred six weeks earlier.

Members asked publicly in September what conflict-management arrangements were in place while the chief executive pursues proceedings against the Society. The answer already existed in Council’s own resolution. It was not shared.

This comes from a leadership that has already acknowledged its failings. On BBC Radio Ulster on 14 August, the president, Mark Borland, accepted that the Society had mishandled the communication of the matter.  The Council’s minutes of 12 August also record the need for a further member communication to “clarify the process undertaken.”

Jonathan McKeown, of JMK Solicitors, said: “The Registrar is a statutory office that every solicitor in Northern Ireland deals with. Members are entitled to know who is exercising those powers, and since when.

“In August the President admitted the Society had got its communications wrong. In September Council quietly transferred the Chief Executive’s functions. Since then it has said nothing, through a four-and-a-half-hour Special General Meeting held on this very issue. That is totally unacceptable.

“No one is asking the Society to comment on ongoing litigation or breach anyone’s confidentiality. A one-line notice would have done.”

“I am now calling on the Council to:

• Formally notify all members immediately of the 9 September resolution and the arrangements currently in place;
• explain why members were not told, including at the Special General Meeting;
• ensure the independent Lessons Learned Review expressly covers communications with members since 12 August.”