The appointment of this firm to the Corporate Legal Services Panel was announced publicly on the agency's website on 3 January 2012. I am advised by NAMA that this particular firm had in fact been long-standing legal advisors to Treasury Holdings. I am further informed that the firm ceased acting for Treasury Holdings in January 2012 when Treasury Holdings decided to take legal action against NAMA.
In view of the relatively small size of the Irish legal sector, it is a fact that many NAMA debtors will have worked with legal advisors who also do work with NAMA. I am advised that large professional firms typically work for a variety of clients and operate procedures to ensure that potential or actual conflicts of interest are identified and managed. Measures taken by firms include the creation of ethical barriers, more commonly referred to as Chinese Walls, between different divisions of a firm to avoid conflicts of interest. Any professional services firm which supplies services to NAMA is under a continuing obligation to notify NAMA of any potential or actual conflict of interest that may arise.
Section 45 of the NAMA Act 2009 deals with professional standards in the provision of services to NAMA by expert advisers and service providers. In particular, Section 45(c) provides that NAMA should ensure that each expert adviser or service provider should make "every effort to avoid or manage conflicts of interest and to declare any such conflict (actual or potential) to NAMA". I am assured that NAMA in this, as in all cases involving the provision of services, is satisfied that any potential conflict of interest has been appropriately managed.