The Law Society of Northern Ireland is to hold a special general meeting next month to scrutinise the circumstances surrounding the provision by its chief executive, David Lavery, of a character reference for his paedophile cousin following his conviction for sexual assault.
The meeting, which will be held on 9 September, was reportedly triggered by the receipt of 50 letters requesting an SGM amid intense public pressure on the society over its decision to stand by Lavery, who has apologised “unreservedly” for a “serious error in judgement”.
The controversy first arose in May when the society’s president, Mark Borland, said the executive committee had accepted an apology by Lavery for providing a character reference for former teacher William Lloyd-Lavery, who was jailed for two years on 28 April for indecently assaulting four girls at a Belfast school in the 1970s.
It intensified earlier this month when Lavery was sacked as a Northern Ireland Human Rights Commissioner by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Sir Chris Bryant, following an independent review which found that he had breached the commission’s code of governance for a decision a spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Office said “was capable of bringing the commission into disrepute and demonstrated a severe failure of judgement regarding public office responsibilities”.
Borland notified members of the SGM in a letter to the society’s members yesterday (13 August) in which he conceded that concerns had been raised “about both the issues which gave rise to this event and the level of information provided to the membership throughout the process”.
He added: “The society has reflected carefully on that feedback and accepts that it should have been more transparent in its communication with members.”
He went on to provide details of the process undertaken by the society. This included the commissioning of an independent “fact-finding investigation” by a retired judge and the subsequent delegation of the decision-making process to a panel “comprised of a senior legal professional to act as chair, an independent human resources consultant and two current members of council”.
He said the panel's decision was communicated to the personnel and executive committee but “could not be reported to the full council including the precise outcome on the basis of independent specialist legal advice received regarding the society’s legal and confidentiality obligations as an employer”.
Borland told Radio Ulster this morning: “We accept the process was independent and robust and therefore we must accept the outcome of that process – that is that David remains as our chief executive and we must have confidence in him going forward.”
However, he conceded that the controversy had damaged the society’s reputation “not by the process that I already outlined, which I think is robust, fair and independent, but in how we have communicated it, how we have failed to be open and transparent about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it, and that we have failed to properly express how much we are concerned by the harm that we have done to the victims and survivors in this case".
Speaking on the same radio programme, Nicola Bannon, one of William Lloyd-Lavery's victims, said she appreciated Borland’s admission that mistakes were made, but believed Lavery's position to be "untenable".
The society has promised to develop a new protocol governing personal or professional references provided by senior officers and convene a forum involving the profession and external stakeholders to consider the use of character references following criminal convictions.
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