Ken Murphy
President
Ken Murphy has been the Director General of the Law Society of Ireland since 1995. The Law Society is the representative, regulatory and educational body for the 12,500 solicitors in the Republic of Ireland. It has a staff of 210 people and a turnover of €29 million.
Ken Murphy qualified as a solicitor in 1981. From 1983 to 1995 he practised with Ireland’s largest law firm, A & L Goodbody, where he became a partner in 1990. He practised for a number of years in commercial litigation. In 1988 he moved to Brussels and spent four years in charge of A & L Goodbody’s office there practising in the field of EU law, in particular EU and Irish competition law.
He was first elected to the Council of the Law Society in 1983 and was re-elected eleven times, chairing many Law Society committees until his appointment as Director General in 1995. As Director General he has been the Society’s main spokesman in the media and at parliamentary committees.
He served for four years as the Chairman of CEEBA which is the association of chief executives of national bar associations in Europe. In October 2010 he was greatly honoured by election to a two-year term as President of the International Institute of Law Association Chief Executives.
