Adjunct and Visiting Faculty

Noeline Blackwell is a human rights lawyer. Having stepped down as CEO of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre in 2023, Noeline is involved in a variety of activities including children’s online safety with the Children’s Rights Alliance, independent research and membership of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and of the Press Council.

Before her role with DRCC, Noeline was Director of FLAC, the Free Legal Advice Centres. Prior to that, she was a solicitor in general practice with a particular interest in family, refugee and immigration law. 

Noeline has been a member of a number of statutory and NGO boards including the Governing Authority of UCD. She currently chairs the Independent Patient Safety Council and the Child Law Project, and is a director of the Open Doors Initiative. 

Mr Byrne was full-time Commissioner of the Law Reform Commission from April 2016 to July 2021. Before that, he was Director of Research in the Commission from 2003 to 2016. He qualified as a barrister in 1982, and between 1982 and 2007 he was a lecturer in law in the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University.

He is co-author ofByrne and McCutcheon on the Irish Legal System, now in its 7th edition (Bloomsbury Professional, 2020), and of theAnnual Review of Irish Lawseries (as of 2023, this consists of 35 annual volumes, published from 1987 to 2022).

He is also the author of a number of texts on safety and health law, includingSafety and Health Acts: Annotated and Consolidated(Round Hall Thomson Reuters, 2014).

He has written for many journals, includingThe Irish Juristand theIrish Judicial Studies Journal. His most recent journal article is “The Bangalore Principles and the Judicial Council Act 2019” [2022] 01The Irish Judicial Studies Journal, available at(opens in a new window)https://www.ijsj.ie/editions/2022-edition-1/.

He has also written Annotations for Irish Current Law Statutes Annotated (ICLSA), including the ICLSA Annotations of the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 (“Coco’s Law”) and of the Maritime Area Planning Act 2021.

Mr Byrne chaired a Working Group whose work led to a Council of Europe 2009 Recommendation on Missing Persons and Presumption of Death, and which influenced the enactment of the Civil Law (Presumption of Death) Act 2019.

Professor Campbell is extensively published, and has an international reputation in various fields, particularly in corporate criminal justice, organised crime, and regulation and culture. She has given lectures and classes in many different countries, and has affiliations with prestigious bodies devoted to law research. Professor Campbell is extensively networked, having held positions at leading law schools in England, Scotland, and Australia, as well as various visiting positions in the US and elsewhere. She is, for example, currently the Co-Chair of the Corporate Accountability network, an active international network of scholars that is hosted by Monash University.

Michael is a Senior Counsel practising in the fields of commercial, competition,  EU law and judicial review.  He graduated UCD with an M.A. in economics and an LL.M.  He also took an LL.M. from the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Finance before joining the New York law firm of Shearman and Sterling. He returned to Ireland in 1981 to commence practice at the Irish Bar. A member of the English, Northern Ireland, New York and US Supreme Court Bars, Michael also practices from Monckton Chambers in London. In 1996 he was appointed by the Irish Government as Chairman of the Competition and Mergers Review Group the majority of whose recommendations were subsequently implemented into Irish law in the Competition Act 2002. In December 2017 he was appointed by the Taoiseach to conduct an inquiry into a failure by the Department of Justice to disclose certain emails to the Charleton Tribunal of Inquiry into alleged police corruption, which led to the resignation of the Minister for Justice. His report was published in February 2018.  Michael also appears in commercial arbitrations (domestic and international) both as counsel and as arbitrator.  He is  a member of the ICDR Panel of Arbitrators, a former President of Arbitration Ireland, current Chairman of the Irish Sport Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel and a former President of Irish Rule of Law International which works with the Irish Government on programmes promoting the rule of law primarily in Africa. He is one of 5 arbitrators from the EU appointed recently to the Panel of Arbitrators for the International Arbitration Centre in Astana, Kazakhstan. Michael was elected a Bencher of the Honorable Society of King’s Inns in 2007 and the following year was elected as a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers in the United States.  He was Chairman of the Bar Council of Ireland 2008  – 2010. In 2012 he was elected a Fellow of the International Society of Barristers. He has been a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Economics at Maynooth on Legal Aspects of Competition and Regulation in Maynooth’s Master of Economic Science Programme.  In the much more interesting parts of his life he is a board member of the Irish Film Institute, was for 13 years a director of the Dublin Theatre Festival and has served on the Development Council of the Wexford Opera Festival.

Professor Richard Collins is the Dean of Internationalisation and Engagement in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) at Queens University Belfast. Professor Collings completed his PhD in 2011 at the University of Sheffield looking at the institutional structure of the international legal order. He also holds degrees from Sheffield Hallam University (LLB, first class hons.) and Newcastle University (LLM with distinction). From September 2016 - 2022, Richard was the Vice-Principal for Internationalisation in the College of Social Sciences and Law, University College Dublin. Richard's primary research interests lie in the fields of international law and jurisprudence, but he also has broader interests in political theory, legal history, constitutional law, the law of international organisations and the international law of the sea. He has held visiting research positions at the Amsterdam Center for International Law (ACIL), University of Amsterdam and the Centre of Excellence in Global Governance Research and Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights, University of Helsinki. R

Rossa Fanning has served as Attorney General of Ireland since December 2022. In that role, he attends Cabinet as the legal adviser to the Government and the chief law officer of the State.

Prior to his appointment as Attorney General, he was a Senior Counsel in private practice at the Irish Bar with a varied caseload spanning commercial law, public law and judicial review, professional negligence, product liability, defamation and privacy law.

Whilst in private practice, he appeared by invitation as a legal expert before the Oireachtas Select Committee on Jobs, Social Protection & Education, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Constitution and the Convention on the Constitution.

He was awarded BCL and LLM degrees from University College Dublin and holds an LLM from the University of Michigan, where he studied with a Fulbright Scholarship and a University Fellowship.

He was a college lecturer at the Sutherland School of Law in UCD between 2001 and 2009, lecturing in the fields of Constitutional law and Company law. He was appointed Adjunct Full Professor at the Sutherland School of Law in 2023.

A CEDR Accredited Mediator, he became a Senior Counsel in 2016 and was admitted to Bar of Northern Ireland in 2019.

He is a bencher and ex officio Council Member of the Honorable Society of King’s Inns, a Member of the General Council of the Bar of Ireland and a Vice-President of the Irish Centre for European Law.

Dr Gagliardi has an extremely strong academic and expert profile, having obtained her PhD in an internationally-renowned centre for human rights research; having held consultancy and policy positions in international human rights organisations; and having held a senior research position on an ERC-funded project. Her publication record is strong, and includes a monograph with one of the leading legal academic presses. Her particular mixture of skills and experience in empirical work, policy-making and legal theory is highly unusual and gives her unique strengths. Dr Gagliardi's research profile includes a – for the legal field – unusual level of experience in empirical methods of data collection and analysis; and in the integration of these with legal, constitutional and human rights theory.

Ms. Gallagher KC FRSA is a renowned international human rights barrister and the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection in Ireland who is also a UCD alumnus of the year. She is now in Ireland regularly as a special rapporteur and is keen to engage with our students and staff especially in areas such as children rights and media freedom. She was a tutor in UCD here at the very start of her career. Ms. Gallagher combines outstanding work as an advocate in court with wider public advocacy in particular in relation to media freedom. She has won many awards including the Columbia University Global Freedom of Expression Prize, 2022; Special Recognition Award (jointly with all members of the international and Maltese legal teams for the family of murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia); Humanist of the Year Award, 2018 (joint with six others), for work in Northern Ireland on humanist marriage and abortion rights; and was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) in 2017.

Paul Gallagher (1955) is a Senior Counsel and has practised at the Irish Bar for 33 years.  He is a Bencher of the King’s Inns in Dublin and was formerly Vice Chairman of the Irish Bar Council.  He was Attorney General of Ireland (2007-11).  Mr. Gallagher was a nominee of Ireland to the Arbitration and Conciliation Panels of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.  He was Chairman of the Irish Sports Council Anti-Doping Disciplinary Tribunal. He served as an observer on the High-Level Advisory Group on the Future of EU Justice Policy (2007-08) representing the UK, Cyprus and Malta. He is an Adjunct Professor of Law at University College Dublin, a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and a Fellow of the International Society of Barristers.  He is a Director of the Irish Centre for European Law and a member of the Euro Crisis Committee and Justice & Home Affairs Committee of the Institute of International & European Affairs.  He has degrees in Law, History and Economics.

Professor Grzejdziak is both a Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Łódź, Poland and a lecturer in competition law at the University of Strathclyde. He is also an Associated Member, close academic collaborator and Coordinator of State Aid Law at the Centre for Antitrust and Regulatory Studies, University of Warsaw. His area of expertise is Polish, EU, US and Comparative Antitrust Law, State Aid Law and Public Business Law. He was previously a Senior Fulbright Fellow and a Kosciuszko Foundation Fellow. In 2021/2022 he was the M. Bekker Program Fellow at the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies, Loyola University Chicago. He has also worked as a researcher and a Member of the Centre for European Law, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. He is the author of numerous publications within the area of Competition Law including a triply prized monograph on State Aid for Services of General Economic Interest.
From 2020-23 he served as an International Expert in the EU project Support to Justice Reform in Ukraine, teaching EU Antitrust and State Aid Law to Judges of the Ukrainian Supreme Court.

Dr Grogan is an expert in rule of law, with a wide variety of publications in the areas of rule of law backsliding, crisis governance and fundamental values, and rule of law during emergencies. She served as advisor to the European Economic and Social Committee on the rule of law during a public health emergency; and is a commissioner for the Independent Commission on UK Public Health Emergency Powers. She authored the EU parliamentary report on the impact of COVID-19 on democracy and fundamental rights. She is a Research Fellow at the CEU Democracy Institute in Budapest, Hungary. Dr Grogan has a high level of media engagement, having given hundreds of interviews, and regularly engages with national and international media.
Joelle has had prior collaboration with the Sutherland School of Law: in collaboration with Professor Imelda Maher, Dr Grogan lead the coordination of the ’50 Years On: Diverging Paths of UK and Irish Membership of the EU” (2022), a symposium published on the Verfassungsblog inviting leading academics from throughout the UK and Ireland to reflect on the impact of EU membership on constitutionalism in both countries.
Dr Grogan holds law degrees from Trinity College Dublin (LLB), and Oxford University (BCL, DPhil). She was a Senior Lecturer at Middlesex University, and course coordinator for EU law subjects, prior to her appointment at King’s College London.
As an Irish citizen and Dublin native, she is regularly back home in Ireland and would thus be able to support the work of the School of Law in person.

Ronan Harty is a partner in the New York law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell.  He provides general antitrust counselling to US and non-US companies and represents clients in enforcement agency investigations, domestic and cross-border acquisitions and joint ventures, and litigations.  He has long been ranked in Band 1 in New York by Chambers USA.

Mr Harty joined Davis Polk in 1986. He received a Bachelor of Civil Law from University College, Dublin, with First Class Honours in 1984. In 1986, he received an LL.M from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was awarded the Cook Fellowship for Legal Research. In 1991, he served as an assistant (stagiaire) in the Cabinet of Sir Leon Brittan, Vice President of the European Communities Responsible for Competition Policy.  In 2021, Mr. Harty established a Newman Fellowship in Competition Law at University College, Dublin.

Mr. Harty has served in leadership positions in the antitrust community for many years. He was the chair of several committees of the Section of Antitrust Law of the American Bar Association and was the editorial board chair of the ABA’s flagship antitrust publication, Antitrust Law Developments (9th edition), and the editor of Global Competition Review’s Merger Remedies Guide – Third Edition. He is also on the editorial board of Antitrust Report.

He serves as board secretary of Legal Services NYC, the largest civil legal aid organization in the United States.

Ms. Hayden is a prize-winning author and journalist and an UCD alumnus of the year. Her first book, My Fourth Time We Drowned (Fourth Estate, HarperCollins) chronicles the failures of UN and EU migration policy in the Mediterranean through its meticulous research. She is currently writing her second monograph and is interested in sharing her ideas with staff and students. She seeks to highlight, through her work, the experiences of those who regularly go unheard, with her journalism published by newspaper outlets all across the world. Ms. Hayden provokes the consciousness of her readers and gives us insights into key issues of law, governance, and human rights in states across Africa, Europe and the Middle East. 

Dr Mina Hosseini is an experienced researcher, lecturer, Marie Curie alumna, lawyer, consultant and mentor with research interests in health law, competition law, pharmaceutical law, and AI in healthcare. She holds a PhD in Competition Law, an LLM in Economic Law from Beheshti University (Tehran), and an LLB in Law from Shiraz University. As a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at UCD Sutherland School of Law (2022-2024), she led COMPHACRISIS, a project examining EU Competition law enforcement in the pharmaceutical sector before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. She published her works in leading academic journals, including the Journal of Antitrust  Enforcement (Oxford University Press), Competition Policy International and Irish Studies in International Affairs.

 Her work is interdisciplinary and comparative, and her contributions to the field were recognised with the National Student Book of the Year Award for her monograph on Comparative Competition Law in 2019. She has been invited to deliver guest lectures and talks at numerous universities and academic institutions, including the University of Málaga, the French Society of Comparative Legislation, the Technical University of Dresden, Queen's University Belfast, Maynooth University, the University of Bologna, Boston College Law School, Brazilian Institute of Competition and Innovation, University College Dublin and Fordham University. She is a mentor for a Legal Mentorship Programme (LegaMart) and an MSCA mentor. She provides strategic guidance on MSCA proposals and research funding and has been invited to discuss grant writing in several workshops at UCD and Marie Curie Ireland promotional events.
Before joining UCD, she held academic positions, including Assistant Professor and lecturer at Tehran University of Science and Culture (2018-2022), Consultant and Researcher at the Niroo Research Institute in Tehran (2014-2018), and Attorney at Law at Iranian Central Bar (2008-2020).

Dr Hosseini is a member of the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS), the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES), the Dublin European Institute, the UCD Discovery AI Healthcare Hub, the UCD One Health Centre, and the Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA).

Professor Anthony Kerr is a graduate of the University of Dublin (Trinity College), 1976, of the University of London (London School of Economics & Political Science), 1977, and of the King's Inns, 1989; Senior Counsel, 2017; Jean Monnet Fellow (European University Institute), 1985-1986; Editor (Dublin University Law Journal), 1981-1999; Editor (Journal of the Irish Society of Labour Law), 1982-1996; Special Correspondent (European Industrial Relations Review), 1984-2007; National Reporter (International Labour Law Reports), 1990-date; Editorial Advisory Board (Irish Law Reports Monthly), 1994-date; Editor (Irish Employment Legislation), 1998-date; Executive Committee member (International Society for Labour & Social Security Law), 2005-2023; National Expert (European Labour Law Network), 2007-date; Member (Council of Financial Services Ombudsman Bureau), 2008-2013; Vice Chair (Employment Law Association of Ireland), 2010-2015; Academic Editorial Board member (European Employment Law Cases), 2010-date; Associate Dean for Graduate Studies (Law), 2011-2018; Ireland Representative (European Centre of Expertise in the field of labour law,employment and labour market policies), 2016-date. He is recognised by the European Commission as a Level One expert and has published extensively, including the chapters on Ireland in the three volume Restatement of Labour Law in Europe and articles in the Irish Jurist, Modern Law Review, Industrial Law Journal, European Labour Law Journal and Europaische Zeitschrift fur Arbeitsrecht.

Renowned as a top-tier practitioner by all leading legal directories, Hamish Lal represents clients in a range of high-value, highly technical and international construction and engineering disputes and arbitrations.  Mr. Lal is ranked Band 1 in both Construction and International Construction Arbitration in Chambers & Partners UK, and in the top-tier in UK Legal 500.

Since 1 January 2022, Niamh Leinwather has taken office as the new Secretary General of the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC). Niamh has both a common and civil law background (Bachelor of Civil Law, University College Dublin, Mag.iur., University of Vienna, Master of European Studies, University of Vienna). She was the first Irish woman to be admitted to the Austrian Bar in 2013 and has over a decade of experience in international dispute resolution at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Vienna where she acted as both counsel and arbitrator. Since February 2023, Niamh has taken office as Secretary Treasurer of the International Federation of Commercial Arbitration Institutions (IFCAI). Since July 2024, Niamh has been elected as Member of the Board of Directors of Arbitral Women.

Emily Logan is the first Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission appointed by President Michael D Higgins on 31 October 2014. In the decade prior to her appointment, Ms Logan served as Ireland's first Ombudsman for Children, accounting directly to the Oireachtas.. Key areas of investigation by the Ombudsman for Children's Office during her tenure included a multi-agency review of child death and own-volition systemic investigation into state compliance with child protection policy. In accordance with its remit as a national human rights institution for children, Ms Logan progressed the rights of children without parental care, in particula,r separated children, children in care and children deprived of their liberty.. Over her period in the Ombudsman for Children's Office, Ms Logan advocated an amendment to the Irish Constitution to further enhance the rights of children. In 2008, she was appointed by her peers to the position of President of the European Network of Ombudsmen for Children, a network of 40 Ombudsman for Children Offices across Council of Europe member statesm and remained on the executive until September 2011. In 2013 she was appointed in a personal capacity by the Minister for Justice to undertake a statutory inquiry into the taking into care of two children from two Roma families by An Garda Síochána. She has twenty five years management experience in Ireland and the UK. For six years preceding her appointment as Ombudsman for Children, she held two senior positions in public administration: Director of Nursing at Crumlin Children's Hospital and Director of Nursing at Tallaght Hospital, following her time as Directorate Manager in Great Ormond Street Hospital London,. Ms Logan graduated from Queen's University with an LLM in Human Rights Law, University College Dublin with an MBA and Diploma in Mediation, and from City University London with an MSc in Psychology. She was awarded two honorary Degrees of Doctor of Laws (LLD) from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth and from University

Ronan Lupton is a Senior Counsel practising in the areas of Commercial, Chancery and Media Law. He has particular expertise and teaches in the areas of Defamation, Data Protection, eCommerce, Freedom of Expression, Intellectual Property, Privacy and Media Contempt and Communications Regulatory Law.

He was called to the Irish Bar in 2008 and the Bar of England and Wales in 2019. He became Senior Counsel and a member of the Inner Bar in 2021.

He is a media law adviser to a number of large media organisations, has advised Government on Internet content issues, and advises generally on complex commercial and technology contracting matters in both the private and public law spheres.

Ambreena Manji is Professor of Land Law and Development and Dean of International for Africa at Cardiff University. She was previously Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa (2010-2014), a British Academy research institute headquartered in Nairobi. At Cardiff, she co-founded the Centre for Law and Global Justice which was responsible for creating the School of Law’s path-breaking Global Justice Pro Bono programme in 2015, working on legal cases in Tanzania and Kenya and providing students with the opportunity of fully funded law placements with litigators and the judiciary in Nairobi and Delhi. The Centre also hosts the African Feminist Judgments project which Ambreena leads with Sibongile Ndashe (ISLA, Johannesburg) and Sharifah Sekalala (Warwick Law School). With partners in Kenya, Ghana, India, and Brazil she ran an annual series of British Academy funded Socio-Legal Journals Global South Writing Workshops for early career scholars between 2018 and 2023. In 2019-2020, Ambreena was invited to teach doctoral and post-doctoral classes in Nairobi, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Dakar, Addis Ababa, and Bogotá. Ambreena was president of the (opens in a new window)African Studies Association UK (2018-2020) and is currently a co-editor of (opens in a new window)African Affairs and a member of the editorial board of Social and Legal Studies. She has been a member of the British Academy’s (opens in a new window)International Engagement Committee since 2020 and its (opens in a new window)Higher Education Policy Development Group since 2022. She serves as the British Academy representative on the (opens in a new window)UK Academies Human Rights Committee (2023-2027). In REF 2021 she served on the Area Studies sub-panel and is now treasurer of the UK Council for Area Studies. She is a member of the Governing Council of the Arts and Humanities Council (AHRC) and Dean of International for Africa at Cardiff University. In this capacity, she has led on a major new investment by the AHRC in a £5m Law and Social Justice Centre. In 2023, Ambreena was appointed University Dean of International for Africa, with responsibility for African partnerships and engagement. In this role is creating the first African Studies Centre in Wales, Hyb Astudiaethau Affricanaidd, which has achieved early success: Ambreena has been awarded a British Academy International Fellowship 2024-2026 for Dr Mariam Kamunyu for a project on Conceptualising African Feminist Judgments and a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship for Justice Prof Joel Ngugi, Kenya Court of Appeal.  In 2020 Ambreena was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales and in 2023, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. @AmbreenaManji

Professor Martin is a Clinical Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law, teaching the Federal Litigation Clinic and Seminar. He has also taught Fundamental Lawyering Skills, Judicial Externships, the Justice and Welfare Clinic, and the Family Advocacy Clinic. In addition, he teaches International Human Rights and International Criminal Law as part of Fordham’s Belfast-Dublin Summer Program. Prior to joining the faculty at Fordham, Professor Martin taught the Federal Litigation Clinic and Seminar at Brooklyn Law School (1998 - 1999) and was an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell (1994 - 1998). He also served as Sullivan & Cromwell’s Pro Bono Fellow, exclusively prosecuting prisoner civil rights actions in the Southern District of New York from 1994 to 1995. Professor Martin clerked for the Hon. John F. Keenan, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, from 1992 to 1994.

Professor Martin is a 1992 graduate of Fordham University School of Law, where he graduated cum laude as the Writing and Research Editor of the Law Review, a member of the Order of the Coif, a director of Fordham Student Sponsored Fellowship program, and the recipient of the Senior Prize, the West Publishing Company Award for Most Significant Contribution to Legal Scholarship, and the New York State Bar Association’s (“NYSBA’s”) Law Student Legal Ethics Award.

Prior to attending the Law School, Professor Martin taught secondary school in Kenya with Harvard University’s WorldTeach Program and developed programs in Ireland and Northern Ireland for the Institute for International Sport. He is a 1987 graduate of the University of Virginia and is a member of the Executive Committee of the AALS Litigation Section, for which he served as Chair in 2010 and Co-Chair in 2002 and is currently Chair. He has also been a member of the Executive Committee of the NYSBA’s Federal Litigation Section, for which he served as the chairperson of its Pro Bono and Public Interest Committee from 1999-2005. He was a Board Member of Legal Services for New York City from 2000-2004.

Michael McDowell is a Senior Counsel and a former politician. Mr McDowell was a founding member of the Progressive Democrats in the mid-1980s. He was elected as a TD for Dublin South–East on three occasions.  During his years in public life, McDowell also served as Attorney General (1999–2002), as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (2002–07), as leader of the Progressive Democrats (2006–07), and as Tánaiste (2006–07). In 2007 he resigned as PD party leader and announced his retirement from public life; he has since resumed his private legal career. He has been a Senator since 2016 having been elected twice in the NUI constituency.
Michael McDowell was educated at Gonzaga College, then at University College Dublin where he became auditor of the UCD Law Society. He later attended the King's Inns in Dublin where he achieved the Barrister-at-Law degree in 1974.  He was appointed a Senior Counsel in 1987 when he was 35 years old.

Dr Michael O’Flaherty is a well-known expert in international and European human rights law. He uniquely combines academic expertise with vast practical experience in the field of human rights spanning work at numerous UN agencies and field operations as well as the European Union. Dr O’Flaherty is currently the Director of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency. Other examples of his practical work in the area of human rights include establishing and leading the UN human rights field operation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Sierra-Leone and coordinating the UN human rights programmes across the Asia-Pacific region at UN headquarters. He has also been a member/vice-chair of the UN Human Rights Committee. At the national level, his experience includes leading the Northern Irish Human Rights Commission. Dr O’Flaherty has held full professorships of human rights law at the universities of Nottingham (UK) and Galway (Ireland) and published extensively in the field of human rights. Many of his academic research projects impact international law, policy and practice. Among them are the Yogyakarta Principles – advancing the protection of LBGTIQ persons’ human rights; and recommendations for UN Treaty Body reform which were developed through an international consultation process running over a number of years.  

Ray is currently Head of Legal Research and Analysis at the OEP.

Before that he held academic positions as a senior legal researcher at three of the world’s top universities between 1995 and 2022, including the University of Oxford, Imperial College, and University College London. He is currently an Adjunct Senior Fellow in Environmental Law at University College Dublin. He has developed a substantial personal research profile of international standing on a wide variety of environmental law related topics. Much of his research has been focused on emerging issues including GMOs, climate change (especially carbon capture and storage), presence technologies and environmental crime. He is most well known for his work on the use of satellite data as evidence and the use of satellite Earth observation (EO) to monitor and enforce laws (particularly environmental ones). He has numerous publications in the EO research area and has written guidance reports on this subject for: UNEP, DG ENV European Commission, and the International Network on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement. He has undertaken projects (worth tens of millions of pounds) for the European Commission, European Committee of the Regions, European Space Agency (ESA), UK Space Agency, World Bank, International Energy Agency, International Emissions Trading Association, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, blue-chip companies, and numerous Research Councils and Governments.

Ray is also the co-founder of Air and Space Evidence Ltd, an award-winning academic spin-off company, originating from University College London. The company was founded in late 2014 to provide an investigatory service to clients by using satellite Earth observation data as intelligence information and evidence. Fast Company named it as one of their World Changing Company Ideas. The company combines experience of operationalising satellite tools to real world monitoring scenarios, alongside environmental enforcement and legal expertise. Its key focus turned to the use of satellites in environmental crime detection programmes in 2016 and the company won competitive funding from the Open Data Incubator for Europe, SEPA, EU LIFE+ programme, and ESA to design a detection model based on satellite data, which can learn to identify the characteristics of illegal waste sites. This work resulted in the company winning the prestigious European Association of Remote Sensing Companies European EO Product of the Year award. They have since designed other detection programmes in a number of different areas.

Emma Redmond, acts as Head of Privacy and Data Protection at OpenAI and a member of the Government of Ireland's AI Advisory Council.  She was Chief Privacy Officer at Stripe and was formerly Head of International Data Protection at Ancestry.com and LinkedIn.com as well as a former practicing barrister.  She is a BCL law graduate from UCD and obtained her Masters in Law from Trinity College Dublin.   As a risk and compliance professional, her experience spans from working cross-culturally within US multinational organisations to acting as a proactive and strategic partner to business leaders. She is an active and regular speaker at data protection events across Europe and has published a number of academic articles in her field of expertise. She was chosen for the Leadership in Law programme at Harvard Law School in May 2017. She is a former Chair of the  American Chamber of Commerce.

Ms Reilly LL.B. JSM (Stanford) MCIArb is a barrister specialising in Sports Law, Mediation and Arbitration/Dispute Resolution. Ms Reilly represents a wide variety of clients in anti-doping, disciplinary and commercial matters before domestic and international tribunals. She also sits as arbitrator, including acting as sole arbitrator under the Rules of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris. Before returning to Dublin, she was Managing Counsel and Head of Mediation at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. She began her career as Deputy Counsel at the ICC International Court of Arbitration in Paris. She is a former judicial intern with the United States Federal District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. She has published a number of academic articles in sports law and international arbitration and is the coach for the School’s team in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, which will take place in Vienna. Ms Reilly is also a Visiting Professor at Western Law School in London, Ontario.

Dr Rodriguez's disciplinary training and research profile is relatively unique in the field in that she holds qualifications in psychology and criminology, while also having experience in conducting socio-legal research into issues of public, constitutional and criminal law. She offers an unusual and innovative skillset for a researcher at the postdoctoral level. In addition to her disciplinary training in methods and techniques that are (in the legal field) highly novel, Dr Rodriguez also has a strong academic profile, having obtained her PhD from a leading university in the field of public law; having held a research position on an ERC-funded project; having, in that capacity, obtained experience in leading a team in the collection, collation and analysis of empirical data in the field; and in having contributed to a number of publications in international outlets during that project.

Blathna Ruane BA LLM (Cantab) PhD (Cantab) is a distinguished Senior Counsel, a UCD alumnus and established constitutional historian with a PhD in the field from Cambridge University. Unusually she was a partner in a leading law firm, McCann FitzGerald, prior to her call to the Bar in 1992. Her research publications include articles in scholarly and professional journals and in books with leading academic presses in the fields of constitutional law and legal history.

Michael Staines graduated from UCD with an Honours BCL in 1973 and an Honours Masters Degree in Law in 1975. His thesis was published  in the Irish Jurist. In between he qualified as a solicitor in 1974.
He then studied European Integration at the University of Amsterdam and attained a postgraduate Diploma, having published his thesis on an aspect of Irish constitutional law and the EU Treaty.

He commenced work as a solicitor in a civil practice in 1976 and two years later joined a criminal law practice, later becoming partner. He set up the firm Michael J. Staines & Company in 1985. He has written many legal articles and has lectured extensively, particularly on criminal law. He has appeared as an advocate in all courts. He was and continues to be involved in many high profile criminal and regulatory cases.

He was a member of the Council of the Law Society of Ireland. He was Chairman of the Criminal Law committee of the Law Society and subsequently a consultant to that committee.

In September 2020, he was granted a Patent of Precedence to use the title of Senior Counsel.

Ercus Stewart SC has practised at the Bar since 1970.  Since 1982 he has been a Senior Counsel. His practice centres on civil, commercial and labour law, litigation and arbitration.  Mr. Stewart is also a member of the Bars of Northern Ireland, England and Wales and Australia (NSW).  In addition to his law practice, Mr. Stewart is an arbitrator, in international and domestic Commercial Arbitration, and also a Mediator. He has been a member of,  or  arbitrated under, amongst others,  IDRI,  CIArb, CEAM,  KLRCA, ICC, LCIA, the Panel of the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS - TAS) Lausanne, Switzerland, the Sports Disputes Resolution Panel (SDRP), London, Just Sport Ireland, Dublin. He is a founder member and former chairman of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Irish Branch, and is author of "Arbitration Commentary and Sources"  published in 2003 by Firstlaw, and "Compensation on Dismissal: Employment Law and Practice" published in 2008 by Bloomsbury Professional. He has been a visiting lecturer on the Diploma in Arbitration programme in the School of Law at UCD since the inception of the programme - in which he was instrumental - since 1997.

Assistant Professor of Commercial Law, University of Málaga. Non-Governmental Advisor (NGA) of the International Competition Network (ICN). Degree in Law from the University of Malaga and PhD from National University of Spain, UNED (Extraordinary Doctorate Award), and Sutherland Fellow (Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin, 2022-2023)

She began her professional career, first as a Substitute Prosecutor and then as a Substitute Judge, both in Malaga and its province and in Palma de Mallorca. In 2008, she began as an In-House Lawyer at a listed bank, mainly in the fields of corporate, debt restructuring and refinancing, commercial, advertising and banking law. During this period, she held different positions of responsibility, and, among others, she was a member of the merger working groups (for the business representation) in the merger processes. Her line of research has focused, among other issues, on commercial, banking, insolvency, advertising and company law, and she is the author of several monographs, articles in periodical and indexed publications, as well as chapter participation in collective works.

She has been the director and has participated in courses in the corporate field relating to the liability of directors and managers of companies as well as the seminar on influence marketing. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal Sepin Digital Mercantil y Concursal, as well as of the Colección Mercantil y Concursal.  He also participates in several research and teaching innovation projects.

She teachs in undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Malaga, the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid, the International University of Andalusia (UNIA), Loyola University of Seville and the National University of Spain (UNED).

She is a regular speaker in specialisation courses and seminars in the field of commercial, corporate, insolvency and banking law and legal congresses of recognized prestige, also contributing as a lecturer in conferences within this discipline. Since 2008 she is a member of the Malaga Bar Association.

Niel currently works at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco where he serves as interim Executive Vice President and Head of Supervision, Supervision + Credit. In this capacity, he oversees bank supervision and regulation for bank holding companies, state member banks, and foreign banking organizations throughout the Twelfth Federal Reserve District, as well as the provision of liquidity to the payment system by extending credit through the Federal Reserve’s discount window. He is also a member of the Bank’s executive leadership team.

Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Niel had over 30 years of leadership experience with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, serving as its managing officer in Banking Supervision for two years and Senior Vice President and Head of Supervision for eight years. He also served as the Bank’s General Counsel for more than fifteen years and led the Minneapolis Fed’s Financial Management Group, Office of the Secretary, and the Payments Standards and Outreach group for several years. He completed a secondment at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System as Deputy Director, Reserve Bank Operations and Payment Systems shortly after the Financial Crisis.

Niel has been an adjunct professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law school for more than thirty years. Courses taught include Financial Regulation, Corporate Counsel Seminar, Contract Drafting, and Federal Reserve System Seminar.  At the University of Minnesota, he was inaugural recipient of the Stanley V. Kinyon Adjunct Teacher of the Year Award and was named First Fellow of the Institute for Law and Economics (2020).  He has written on crisis liquidity programs, bank regulation, and a casebook for the course, Federal Reserve System seminar.  Niel has a particular interest in bank regulation and culture and spoke at University College Dublin’s Regulating Bank Culture Seminar in 2020, and has been a frequent guest presenter at UCD and the University of Minnesota Law School, among other venues.

Niel earned his bachelor’s degree from South Dakota State University and his Juris Doctorate from University of Minnesota Law School. 

Carsten Zatschler is a Senior Counsel practising all aspects of EU Law and International Trade and Investment Law with particular expertise in financial regulation, tax, AML, state aid, energy and fisheries. Called to the Bar of England & Wales in 1999, Carsten is Bencher of the Inner Temple in London and currently serves as a member of the Board of Appeal of the European Financial Supervisory Authorities (EBA, ESMA, EIOPA). Past roles include a decade in the cabinets of three consecutive British Judges at the Court of Justice of the EU, two terms of office as Director of Legal and Executive Affairs of the EFTA Surveillance authority and appointment as a member of the Supervisory Committee of the EU’s anti-fraud office (OLAF).

Carsten holds law degrees from the University of Cambridge (B.A., M.A. (Cantab.)), the Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) (Maîtrise) and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (LL.M.), as well as being an alumnus of INSEAD’s Advanced Management Programme.