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IP law firm Bristows has appointed Naoise Gaffney as of counsel and UPC director in Dublin. The London-headquartered firm opened its Dublin office in September 2023 in response to the establishment of the Unified Patent Court (UPC).

Addleshaw Goddard Ireland has appointed Joseph O'Rourke as a corporate and commercial partner and Killian Maher as a construction partner. The two appointments come as the international law firm settles into its new 28,000 sq ft office at Fitzwilliam No.28, Dublin.

Northern Ireland's High Court has reserved judgment on an application for judicial review brought over the Executive's failure to adopt an anti-poverty strategy. The Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) brought the legal proceedings with support from Public Interest Litigation Support (P

Child complainants in serious sexual offence cases in Northern Ireland will soon be able to avail of free independent legal advice, justice minister Naomi Long has indicated. A children's version of the sexual offences legal advisers (SOLA) pilot was originally expected to be launched in January 202

Ireland is facing infringement proceedings over its alleged failure to transpose two EU directives. The European Commission has sent a letter of formal notice to six member states, including Ireland, for allegedly having notified only the partial transposition of the Gender Balance on Corporate Boar

The Irish government has urged Israel to suspend legislation banning the largest provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza and the West Bank. Two pieces of legislation respectively ban Israeli authorities from contacting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (

Former European Court of Human Rights president Dr Síofra O'Leary has joined UCD Sutherland School of Law as adjunct full professor. An alumna of the university, Dr O'Leary served as a judge of the Strasbourg court from 2015 until 2024.

Belfast-based O'Reilly Stewart Solicitors has named Northern Ireland Hospice as its charity partner for 2025.

The review body for alleged miscarriages of justice in England and Wales is to assess an application from Lucy Letby, the English nurse convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more. Ms Letby, a former nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital, is currently serving 15 whole

Proposals to increase criminal and civil legal aid fees in Northern Ireland by 16 per cent have been put out to consultation. The public consultation, which opened last week, will run until 27 March 2025 — and the proposed increase remains "subject to business case approval by the Department o

Lawyer-turned-banker Davinia Conlan has been appointed as chair of the Federation of International Banks in Ireland (FIBI) for a two-year tenure. Ms Conlan, a solicitor, spent over 16 years as a banking lawyer prior to her appointment in 2023 as country head for Citi Ireland, where she was previousl

Scotland's first minister has firmly ruled out a proposed ban on cats. The Scottish Animal Welfare Commission (SAWG) has suggested strict new measures on outdoor cats because of their "significant impact on wildlife populations", the BBC reports.

Irish lawyer Róisín Culligan has joined the London office of global law firm Orrick as managing associate in its technology transactions group. Ms Culligan, who is dual-qualified as a solicitor in Ireland and in England and Wales, was previously an associate in William Fry's technology

Data protection watchdogs across Europe, including in Ireland, have begun scrutinising the new Chinese AI chatbot, DeepSeek. DeepSeek rocked the AI world after it was claimed to have been developed at the fraction of the cost of OpenAI's ChatGPT — while also being capable of running on far les

Professor Niamh Moloney has been appointed to the UK's Prudential Regulation Committee (PRC) for a three-year term. The PRC takes the most important decisions of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), one of the UK’s financial regulators.