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She brings over 14 years’ experience in practice in Northern Ireland, including as group legal counsel for Tayto Group Limited and senior company lawyer for Translink.

Ms Downey will take up the newly-created post in January 2025 following her recent appointment by the university’s president and vice-chancellor Professor Sir Ian Greer.

She will lead the new Chancellery Directorate and provide proactive, timely and well-informed legal advice on corporate matters and law.

Responsible for ensuring legal consistency across the university, including the legal services, research contracts, information governance, risk management, employment issues and related roles, she will also lead cross-institutional projects and programmes associated with principal accountabilities.

Ms Downey has worked in both general private practice and as an in-house lawyer providing strategic and commercially focused legal advice at executive level and across all business divisions for some of Northern Ireland’s top companies.