The Law Society is to be joined as a notice party to the judicial review taken by a solicitor, Mr Stephen Miley, who is contesting orders by the Flood tribunal to reveal his clients.
Mr Miley's challenge against Mr Justice Flood's order directing him to reveal the names of the people behind Jackson Way Properties Ltd, an offshore company under investigation by the tribunal, will be heard in the High Court on Thursday.
The Law Society's involvement is solely to uphold and preserve the principles underlying legal privilege and solicitor-client confidentiality, according to its director-general, Mr Ken Murphy.
"By becoming a notice party and making submissions and arguments, the society is in no way supporting any party on the merits of this particular case," he says in the current issue of the Law Society Gazette.
The society did not support or wish to be identified with either side in this dispute but was making its contributions as a "friend of the court".
Mr Murphy said the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Morris, invited the society to be joined as a notice party to the case at an earlier hearing last month.
Jackson Way Properties last year attempted to stop the construction of a £150 million motorway through land it owns in south Co Dublin.
About 10 years earlier the land had been bought by a company owned by Mr Jim Kennedy, the businessman who is an associate of the Fianna Fail TD, Mr Liam Lawlor, and the former assistant Dublin city and county manager, Mr George Redmond.
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