NEW AG OFTEN TARGETED THE DISCOVERY PROCESS
DURING his time as a leading barrister in the Commercial Court, Rossa Fanning developed and implemented legal strategies for a wide range of clients – including some infamous household names such as Michael Fingleton and Sean Quinn.
He also represented former minister Michael Lowry at the Moriarty Tribunal, as well as various banks, financial institutions and businesses in post Celtic Tiger Ireland.
Often that work saw Mr Fanning zero in on perceived weaknesses, gaps or omissions in the documents provided by the opposing side during the discovery process – a process successive Governments have not been willing to allow the State to be exposed to when it comes to the illegal nursing home charges scandal.
In 2010, Mr Fanning was senior council for former Irish Nationwide chief, Michael Fingleton, when Ulster Bank secured a €13.6m judgment against him for unpaid loans.
As such he attacked the bank’s records, obtained under discovery, saying there were defects in the bank’s documents and the manner in which the loan had been granted.
During the case, it emerged that Mr Fingleton had failed to declare his largest asset – a €27m pension portfolio – in a list of assets and liabilities that was given by him to the bank. In that instance, Mr Fanning described Mr Fingleton’s omission as a ‘genuine error’ adding that there had been no intention to mislead.
Mr Fanning was also a core part of the Sean Quinn’s legal team in 2012 after the Quinn family implemented a global asset stripping scheme to move millions of euro beyond the reach of the State. However, Mr Fanning quit this role after the Mail on Sunday published explosive video footage of family members in Kiev in which Peter Quinn – the person tasked with implementing the asset stripping scheme – spoke of not being bothered about lying in court.