All three have been appointed for three-year terms, beginning in semester one of the 2021/22 academic year, the university announced today.

Ms Justice Baker said it is “a great personal honour to accept the office of adjunct professor in my old alma mater, with which I have maintained a close link throughout my career”.

“My time as a student at UCC was formative in many ways and I have great and enduring regard for it as a seat of learning,” she said.

“The continued discourse between the courts and the student and teaching body is important, and a relationship from which both derive great benefit.”

Ms Logan was recently appointed as a commissioner of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC). She previously led the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission from 2014 to 2019, and before that was Ireland’s first Ombudsman for Children from 2003 to 2014.

Commenting on her appointment, Ms Logan said: “It is a great honour to be associated with such an esteemed institution as UCC and with academics whose work has very much guided and influenced my own work, in particular over the past 17 years.”

Mr Gaffney leads the international arbitration practice of UAE law firm Al Tamimi & Co’s Abu Dhabi office. He has worked with a variety of law firms in Ireland, London, Paris and Abu Dhabi, as well as with the United Nations in Geneva.

Commenting on his appointment, Mr Gaffney said: “It is an extraordinary honour to be appointed by my alma mater, UCC, as an adjunct professor to its globally recognised School of Law.

“I look forward to teaching on the School’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, contributing further to the School’s development of ADR in its curricula, and fostering its links with international legal practice.

“I welcome the opportunity to continue my family’s tradition of teaching in UCC, which began in the 1940s with my grandfather’s appointment as professor of surgery.”

Professor Mark Poustie, dean of the School of Law, said: “UCC’s adjunct professor programme is designed to ensure the appointment of distinguished individuals who have made or have the potential to make significant and tangible contributions to the university. This can be readily demonstrated in the school’s latest adjunct professor appointments.

“I am delighted to welcome the Hon Ms Justice Marie Baker, Ms Emily Logan and Mr John Gaffney to UCC and the School of Law as adjunct professors.

“All are eminent and distinguished in their various fields and will make a tremendous tangible contribution to the School, inspiring students as role models through their diverse careers, achievements and leadership.”

He added: “I look forward to working with our new adjuncts in the coming years.”