The Law Society has applied for an order freezing the accounts of a solicitor who is alleged to have a 'hole' in his client account of more than €1m.
Lawyers for the society told the High Court it was not a 'Lynn and Byrne situation', referring to Michael Lynn and Thomas Byrne. The two solicitors owe tens of millions of euro to a variety of financial institutions.
However, Paul Anthony McDermott told the court a sum of money was missing.
Mr McDermott told the court the society was anxious to have the case heard in public as it did not believe it should be done behind closed doors.
He said there had been four meetings of the Society's Regulation of Practice Committee at which the solicitor had been offered the opportunity to 'plug the hole' in his client account, but he had not done so.
Lawyers for the solicitor, who was not named in open court, said they accepted that there were very serious irregularities.
Solicitor Sean Sexton outlined the steps that were being taken by his client to pay back the money.
He said a loan had already been approved and they were waiting for final approval on a second loan.
Mr Sexton said if the proceedings were held in public it could frustrate his client's efforts to repay the money.
High Court President Mr Justice Richard Johnson said he would not allow details of the case to be made public at the moment.
However, he said if the letters of approval were not produced tomorrow morning, he would allow immediate publication of the details.
Mr Justice Johnson told Mr Sexton there was a lot of public disquiet around at the society and at the profession and it 'required to be shored up'.
