News

A senior law firm partner was left embarrassed after circulating a memo about climate change with reference to the non-existent "Valerian Sea". In a newsletter sent round a City of London firm, the lawyer said he had a "eureka moment" when he was "leaving a Scandinavian port on the Valerian Sea in t

A government review of freedom of information legislation originally due for summer 2022 will not now be completed until early 2023. The review, announced in June 2021, is at "an advanced stage" but will not be completed this year, public expenditure and reform minister Michael McGrath said yesterda

New legislation aimed at growing credit union lending has been approved by Senators and will now go before TDs. The Credit Union (Amendment) Bill 2022, published earlier this month, is the first substantive credit union legislation since 2012, which followed the Commission on Credit Unions.

Professor Caroline Fennell, a professor emerita of law at University College Cork, is among the first four people nominated for appointment to the new Electoral Commission, which will be entitled An Coimisiún Toghcháin. Ministers yesterday agreed to nominate Professor Fennell, along wi

Major changes to the planning application process, including new restrictions on judicial review applications and legal costs, have been unveiled by the government. Ministers have published the outline of the new Planning and Development Bill 2022, which follows a 15-month review of the planning sys

The Traveller Equality and Justice Project (TEJP) has won recognition at University College Cork's Teaching Excellence Awards. A partnership between UCC School of Law and legal rights group FLAC, the project operates a clinic providing information and representation to Travellers who have experience

Caldwell & Robinson Solicitors has announced plans to open a new, larger office in Belfast next year. William McFarlane, an experienced property and litigation solicitor who joined the firm in 2018, will head the expanded office.

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has warned there are "more areas of concern" in its latest annual human rights statement than in the previous year. The rights body yesterday launched its statement for 2022, analysing human rights developments in Northern Ireland throughout the year.

KPMG has launched a standalone law firm in Ireland with ambitions to establish a team of 160 legal professionals within the next two to three years. Led by managing partner John Given and based at Stokes Place, Dublin 2, KPMG Law is providing clients with immediate access to its 60-strong legal and

A Russian blogger who shared a bizarre dream involving Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been fined 30,000 rubles. Ivan Losev, a 26-year-old in Siberia, wrote on Instagram about a dream where he was conscripted and then captured with his comrades by Ukrainian forces led by Zelenskyy himsel

DLA Piper has appointed Gavin Woods as a partner in the firm's litigation and regulatory practice in Ireland. Mr Woods will join the firm in January 2023 from Arthur Cox, where he has been a partner since 2011. He specialises in litigation, dispute resolution, and investigations and advises on a bro

Tughans, one of Northern Ireland's largest commercial law firms, has announced a move to new headquarters in The Ewart at Bedford Square in Belfast. The firm said it had outgrown its Victoria Street base and would now take up around 23,000 sq. ft. across the 11th and 12th floors of The Ewart, a rece

Aria Grace Law has become the first corporate law firm in the UK to become a community interest company (CIC) to lock in its commitment to donating all profits to charity. The firm, which is attracting an increasing number of big-name lawyers, is underpinned by a commitment to share the wealth betwe

Plans to further restrict judicial reviews of planning decisions — including a ban on actions brought by residents' associations — will be discussed by ministers this week, according to reports. A bill to be discussed by the Cabinet tomorrow would require judicial reviews to be taken by

Law firms Arthur Cox and McCann FitzGerald have been recognised for their volunteer work with legal rights group FLAC during the Covid-19 pandemic. FLAC honoured its "Covid Clinic Champions" at its annual justice lecture, which was delivered by Professor Philippe Sands KC.