Connor Beaton

Government proposals to allow guardianship rights to be "removed" from a parent convicting of killing the other are unlikely to be constitutionally permissible, a legal academic has warned. Ministers last week published the general scheme of the Guardianship of Infants (Amendment) Bill 2025, which s

Barristers appearing in the most serious criminal cases in Northern Ireland are effectively being asked to do twice the work for half the pay they were getting two decades ago, the chairperson of the Bar of Northern Ireland has told Irish Legal News. Donal Lunny KC, who took up office in September,

ILN's Connor Beaton talks to Philippa Greer about how UNRWA is battling to preserve international humanitarian law in Gaza, where at least 42,800 Palestinians have now been killed in Israel's military response to the October 7 attack. Philippa Greer had already accepted the top job in UNRWA’s

‘Necrogamy’ might sound deeply unpleasant, but in fact refers to a lawful practice in France — one of the only jurisdictions in the world to allow, in certain circumstances, posthumous marriage between a living person and their deceased partner. And Mrs, a bittersweet dark comedy

The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by convicted murderer Graham Dwyer in a case concerning the admissibility of evidence which was obtained in breach of EU law. Delivering judgment for the Supreme Court, Mr Justice Maurice Collins said the court had dealt with "materially identical issues" in

Criminal barristers across the State have withdrawn their services today in a major escalation of The Bar of Ireland's campaign for fee restoration. Dozens of barristers and some solicitor colleagues defied the wind and rain to gather in front of the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin this morning

Pro bono work has been "mainstreamed into the Irish legal culture" — but that was not the case until relatively recently, FLAC chief executive Eilis Barry points out. When Ms Barry joined the legal charity FLAC in 2016, Éamonn Conlon SC, then a partner in A&L Goodbody LLP, had just

An independent working group has been established to review the Law Society of Northern Ireland's handling of the trainee pay issue which threatens to leave some firms out of pocket to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds. A special general meeting taking place in Law Society House yesterday hear

Connor Beaton delivers his verdict on French legal drama Anatomy of a Fall.

Ireland's biggest law firms made little to no progress on closing the gender pay gap in the first year since mandatory reporting began, according to analysis by Irish Legal News. Matheson, A&L Goodbody, Arthur Cox, McCann FitzGerald, Mason Hayes & Curran and William Fry are among businesses

The Law Society of Northern Ireland has told solicitor firms they are "free to arrive at their own view" on trainee solicitors' entitlement to the national minimum wage while warning of the risks of disregarding its advice. Irish Legal News first reported on discontent among senior lawyers after the

The new legal year has started with a bang. Just three short months after Helen McEntee said she didn't like to see barristers "protesting on the steps of the Criminal Courts of Justice", there are barristers on the steps of courthouses across the length and breadth of the State as they take part in

Solicitor firms in Northern Ireland have been left “shell-shocked” after being told they face HMRC enforcement action if they do not pay up to tens of thousands of pounds in back pay to trainee solicitors, Irish Legal News has learned. For years, many, if not most, trainee solicitors in

When Rob McDwyer describes moving to Australia as a Dublin solicitor with just over a decade of experience under his belt, he manages to make a career-defining move sound like something of a whim. Encouraged by a handful of friends and acquaintances to follow them in making the leap, he decided to a

Strike action could be on the cards after The Bar of Northern Ireland said it is considering "an extended range of options" in response to unprecedented delays in legal aid payments. The Lady Chief Justice, Dame Siobhan Keegan, warned in her address on the opening of the new legal year earlier this