Richard Palmer was educated at The Royal Belfast Academical Institution and then at Queen’s University Belfast. Having graduated in Law in 1987 he undertook his vocational training at the Institute of Professional Legal Studies.

He then joined the Firm of Peden & Reid in Belfast where he was Apprenticed to Niall Browne and in which Firm both his Grandfather Robert Coulter and Father George Palmer were at different times Senior Partner and both of whom also served as President of the Law Society in 1960 and 1996 respectively.

In 1994 Richard became a Partner in Peden & Reid where he undertakes Private Client, Property (both Residential and Commercial) and Corporate work.

In 1999, having served on the Association’s Committee for some seven years, Richard became Chairman of the Belfast Solicitors’ Association and was subsequently elected to the Council of the Law Society in 2003.

He has sat on the Home Charter, Family Law, Education, Professional Indemnity Insurance & Risk Management and Conveyancing & Property Committees of the Society and previously chaired the Financial Services Committee.

He was recently a Member of the Society’s Education Review Working Group which completed a review of vocational training for Solicitors and was most recently the Chair of the Professional Ethics & Guidance Committee which is the Society’s main Regulatory Committee.

Richard is married with three children and lives in Belfast. When not working he is a keen golfer and is an active Member of Instonian’s Hockey Club where he still plays regularly and where he is involved in the administration of the Club’s successful Youth Section.