AIB employs more solicitors than many top law firms

AIB has more practising solicitors on its payroll than many leading Irish law firms, data from the Law Society shows.

The bank, which is 99.9 per cent owned by the State, has 114 solicitors on its books, which would make it the seventh largest law firm in Ireland under a ranking compiled by the Law Society back in March.

This would place it just behind leading firms Mason Hayes & Curran and William Fry, who were joint fifth in the ranking with 188 practising solicitors each at the end of last year.

Byrne Wallace and Maples and Calder were in joint seventh with 107 solicitors each, followed by Eversheds with 95 and Cork-based Ronan Daly Jermyn with 87. Arthur Cox had the largest number of practising solicitors at 289.

It is understood that 90 per cent of AIB’s solicitors are permanent employees of the bank, with the others engaged on contracts or other arrangements.

The large number of solicitors employed by the bank partly reflects the legal paperwork attached to much of its day-to-day lending and investment activities.

Along with other Irish banks, AIB has been subjected to increased regulatory scrutiny since the global financial crash in late 2008, and also has significant engagement with the State following its €20.8 billion bailout.

Repossessions

In addition, the bank has had to manage a large book of legacy issues since the crash relating to customer arrears, loan restructurings, repossessions, personal insolvencies and bankruptcies.

In a statement released to The Irish Times, AIB said: "We have 114 solicitors working at AIB.

“Of these, more than two-thirds are engaged in the typical legal work required by a bank of our size such as the legal documentation for SME and corporate lending, transactional support for funding and liquidity issuances, designing terms and conditions for new products and offers, supporting the branch network, routine checking of title issues and solicitors’ undertakings and advising in relation to outsourcing, employment, [and] property law.

“They also provide legal support in relation to our relationship with our shareholder, including the return of capital to the State, capital reorganisation and potential [stock market] IPO.

“Less than one-third of our solicitors are working on legacy non-performing loans and related activities.

“The numbers working in the legal department have fallen in recent years in line with the improving performance of the bank and the Irish economy.’’

Bank of Ireland also has a number of practising solicitors on its payroll but declined to comment on how many.

Some 9,707 practising certificates were issued by the Law Society to solicitors in 2015, up 4 per cent on the previous year.

The top 20 law firms employed 2,294 solicitors between them, or 23 per cent of the total.

There were 2,285 private firms of all sizes, including sole practitioners, at the end of 2015.