The government has signalled an openness to reforming the criminal legal aid system to provide for direct payments to barristers practising in the District Court.
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Appointments
See all articlesLetterkenny-based Gallagher & Brennan Solicitors will now be known as Gallagher Brennan Ponsonby Solicitors following the promotion of Donna Ponsonby to partner. Ms Ponsonby joined the firm as an assistant solicitor in 2012 prior to being promoted to associate in 2014. She practises in the areas
Dublin-based intellectual property law firm FRKelly has appointed Judy McCullagh as a partner. Ms McCullagh has worked for over 20 years in the IP arena, with the majority of these years spent in the trade mark field. She represents clients before the Irish, UK and EU trade mark offices.
Refugee and migration law expert Professor Cathryn Costello has been appointed as full professor of law at UCD Sutherland School of Law. Professor Costello is currently professor of fundamental rights and co-director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School in Berlin, and Andrew W.
Nineteen barristers and three solicitors have been granted patents of precedence allowing them to use the title of senior counsel. In contrast to last year, when more women than men were appointed as senior counsel for the first time, less than a third (32 per cent) of this year's appointments are w
Beauchamps has appointed Pat McInerney and Shane Costelloe as partners in the firm. Mr McInerney joins the firm as head of the public and regulatory team, while Mr Costelloe has been appointed as a partner in the employment and benefits groups.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC has been appointed as an adjunct full professor in UCD Sutherland School of Law with effect from September 2023. Ms Gallagher is a prominent human rights lawyer from Ireland who practises as a barrister with Doughty Street Chambers in London. She is a specialist in human rig
Northern Ireland
See all articlesNorthern Ireland’s High Court has rejected a decision of the Department of Justice (DoJ) to refuse compensation for miscarriage of justice where the applicant, Gerry Adams, was improperly interned in 1973. The applicant challenged the 2021 DoJ decision which found that Adams was not eligible f
Cleaver Fulton Rankin has become the first law firm in Northern Ireland to complete the British Heart Foundation’s RevivR CPR training. The training was organised by the firm's responsible business group and delivered using the RevivR online training platform, with the assistance of Adele Harr
A discrimination disability case brought by a man against his former employer Home Bargains with support from the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland has been settled for £25,000 with no admission of liability. Ryan Walker, who lives with cerebral palsy, was employed in the chain's Armagh
Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal has entirely dismissed Tesco’s challenge to an Antrim Council planning decision relating to a new store for its competitor Asda. The court found that the decision reached was a valid and informed one and, although it went against Tesco’s favour, i

Every household in Northern Ireland is to receive a leaflet outlining the support, services, and compensation available for victims and survivors of historical institutional abuse. The leaflet, which will be distributed from this week, is the latest phase of an awareness campaign which started in Ma
Universities
See all articlesRefugee and migration law expert Professor Cathryn Costello has been appointed as full professor of law at UCD Sutherland School of Law. Professor Costello is currently professor of fundamental rights and co-director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School in Berlin, and Andrew W.
Ms Justice Úna Ní Raifeartaigh will join judicial colleagues from Ireland, Scotland and England in addressing an upcoming conference on the role of witnesses in the criminal justice system. Hosted by the University of Limerick, the conference on 22–23 June 2023 will provide a for
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC has been appointed as an adjunct full professor in UCD Sutherland School of Law with effect from September 2023. Ms Gallagher is a prominent human rights lawyer from Ireland who practises as a barrister with Doughty Street Chambers in London. She is a specialist in human rig
University of Limerick students Benjamin Blackman, Hailey McLeod, Japnit Bhata, Harry Gribben and Kathleen Coll have won the Kate Fleming Memorial Mediation Competition. The competition, hosted by UL Law School, involves law and medical students working together in multi-disciplinary teams to settle
Matheson has partnered with University College Dublin (UCD) to launch a new Matheson Diversity in Law Newman Fellowship which aims to promote greater diversity within the legal profession. The fellowship will contribute to building research-based evidence in the field of access to legal education fo
Interviews
See all articlesIt’s not the conventional opening to an Irish Legal News interview. Aonghus Kelly is speaking via Zoom from Kyiv and has recently emerged from the air raid shelter beneath his building. “I’m sitting in my kitchen and just got out of the shelter a little while ago as we’ve had
Our sister publication Scottish Legal News spoke to Niamh Hargan about her busy life as a media lawyer and novelist. Lawyer by day and writer by night — literally — Niamh Hargan juggles a demanding job in media law while penning novels in her spare time.

In legal circles it’s a rare occurrence when a rising young lawyer moves from a corporate law firm that advises multinational companies, financial institutions and government to one which provides free legal advice to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. This, though, was the de

James Lawless is one of the busiest backbenchers in the Dáil. The barrister and Fianna Fáil politician has chaired the Oireachtas justice committee for the past two years — a hard-working body which deals with more legislation than every other committee combined. The committee's

This has been another eventful month for Gavin Booth. On Friday 7 October, a judge at the High Court in Belfast ruled that the PSNI was in breach of a legal duty to carry out an effective investigation into a fatal loyalist gun attack on a pub in Co Down 30 years ago, which involved allegations of c
