News

Parents and carers will gain a right to request flexible working, including the right to request compressed or reduced hours, under legislation expected to be enacted by the summer. The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill, now being drafted by the Office of the Attorney General, will

England should follow in the footsteps of Scotland and Wales and ban smacking, the children's commissioner has said. Dame Rachel de Souza said she was supportive of changing the law and was "against violence of any kind against children".

James Kingston, barrister and legal adviser to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), has passed away. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin and LSE, Mr Kingston qualified as a barrister in 1992 and joined the DFA in 1995. He became legal adviser and a member of the DFA's management board in 2009.

A newly-opened equine centre at Castlerea Prison will allow prisoners to develop skills in horse husbandry for employment in the equine industry after their release. The "Horses of Hope" centre, the result of an innovative partnership between the Irish Prison Service and the horse racing industry, w

A family's new puppy has turned into a profitable investment after digging up valuable gold coins on his first walk. Ollie, a young lagotto romagnolo, well known as truffle hunters, dug up 15 sovereign coins valued at £5,943.96 when taken for a walk near Blackpool in northern England, The Time

Stalking and non-fatal strangulation will become standalone offences under legislation announced by justice minister Helen McEntee today. Though both stalking and non-fatal strangulation are already crimes, the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill will make the law "clearer and stronger"

Derry and Strabane firm McCay Solicitors has announced the appointment of Andrea McGill as an associate solicitor in the firm's probate and property department. The appointment reunites Andrea McGill with firm founder Gareth McCay and associate solicitor Aaron Mullin, who are all cousins.

Our regular round-up of deals involving Irish law firms. Submit your deals to newsdesk@irishlegal.com. Maples and Calder (Ireland) LLP, the Maples Group's law firm, has advised the first Irish regulated funds to be granted permission by the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) to take exposure to crypto-as

Businesses with a UK turnover of less than £10 million will be removed from the scope of the UK's merger control regime, the government has announced. Under the "small merger safe harbour", mergers will be exempted from review by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) where each party's U

A group of lawyers from the UK should be banned from entering the US because they have allegedly “enabled malign activities of Russian oligarchs”, a congressman has claimed. Steve Cohen, a congressman from Tennessee, has called for six media lawyers to be refused visas.

An employee has been awarded $450,000 in damages after his employer organised an unwanted surprise birthday party for him. Kentucky man Kevin Berling was fired over his response to the party, which was standard for employees but which he had explicitly told managers he did not want, WKRC-TV reports.

Motorists will be allowed to watch TV in self-driving cars under proposed changes to the Highway Code in Great Britain – but using their mobile phones on the road will remain illegal. The UK government said the planned changes to the Highway Code, which follow a public consultation, will allow

The State has been ordered to pay 50 per cent of costs in a High Court case it won outright because it did not seek to have an eligibility point dealt with as a preliminary issue. In a judgment published last week, Mr Justice Michael Twomey criticised the State for allowing the case to go on trial o

Legislation is set to be drawn up by government to strengthen the rights of individuals in relation to their health information. The Health Information Bill will provide for the appointment of a "national health information guardian", who will be an independent champion for individuals and the publi

The government has been urged to clarify whether proposed legislation on digital recording by gardaí explicitly covers facial recognition and other emerging technologies. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission said the human rights and equality implications of these technologies need