Interviews

It’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

When global law firm Taylor Wessing opened its first Irish office in Dublin just over a year ago, it had strategic growth plans to support international technology and life sciences sector organisations with its own specialist advice. Its base in a Georgian townhouse in the city’s Ely Place by

"We are on the cusp, I believe, of the commencement and introduction of one of the most transformational pieces of legislation in Irish history," says Annette Hickey, senior associate and head of the surrogacy and fertility law team at Poe Kiely Hogan Lanigan LLP (PKHL). Ms Hickey is one of a number

It emerged in March that nearly two-thirds of disabled people employed in the Irish legal sector have not disclosed their disability status at work. Many in the industry believe this concerning statistic emphasises the need for more awareness around the topic. The worrying finding came from a survey

From martial arts to theatre, Lyn Harris, who was promoted to partner at Herbert Smith Freehills in Belfast last month, clearly likes to keep busy. As well as her day job in the Alternative Legal Services (ALT) disputes practice, Ms Harris has run theatre companies in her spare time and is currently

A business leader first and foremost is how Sarah Irwin, head of legal and company secretary at Tines, a fast-growing Irish tech start-up, describes herself – rather than a traditional in-house lawyer. And Ms Irwin, who has packed a lot of variety into her career, is now bringing like-minded p

The run-up to next month’s Northern Ireland Assembly elections has been dominated by the lingering impact of Brexit, with unionist opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol threatening to prevent the formation of a new power-sharing Executive. But Naomi Long, leader of the cross-community Al

In pursuing a career as a lawyer, Diego Gallagher, now senior solicitor at the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) in Dublin, was following in his father’s footsteps. His dad Brian Gallagher had his own law firm, Gallagher Shatter, with Alan Shatter – a former minister for justice – an

Barrister Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh of Matrix Chambers in London is no stranger to high-profile or controversial cases. And one of her most recent trials is no exception. Ms Ní Ghrálaigh was the sole woman barrister to defend one of the 'Colston Four', representing the only wom

Coming from a legal family, Stuart Gilhooly SC, partner with HJ Ward & Co in Dublin, says it was always at the back of his mind that he was likely to pursue a career in that profession. But that didn't stop him from considering other options, in particular journalism when he was a young person w

School was such a positive experience for Jenny Moore, employment lawyer with Danske Bank UK in Belfast, that she didn't want to leave an educational setting. Becoming a teacher was the career path she thought she would choose from a young age. But that was only after she decided to take an academic