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Denise Brett SC has been elected as chairperson of the Immigration, Asylum and Citizenship Bar Association (IACBA) at its first-ever AGM. The association, established last year with support from The Bar of Ireland, brings together barristers practising in this specialised area of law, which also inc

The Northern Ireland Executive should be "very slow to interfere" with the current 12-person jury in criminal trials in the face of the COVID-19 backlog, an experienced criminal lawyer has said. According to newspaper reports over the weekend, a reduction in the size of juries from 12 to seven or ni

Witnesses will no longer be required to indicate their religious faith when filing an affidavit under a proposed overhaul of the oaths and affirmations system. Ministers agreed on Tuesday to reform the process as part of the Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2020.

Computing experts have raised serious privacy and data harvesting concerns relating to Google software running on the phones of all Android smartphone users who want to use Ireland's COVID-19 contact tracing app. Professor Douglas Leith, chair of computing systems at Trinity College Dublin, and his

LawCare has appointed a new chair to its board of trustees. Andrew Caplen replaces outgoing chair Bronwen Still as of this month. Mr Caplen is a solicitor, notary public and a former president of the Law Society of England and Wales. He has written and spoken widely on a range of justice and legal i

A proposed commission to look at the relationship between the courts and Parliament has apparently been shelved by the UK government. Plans for the Constitution, Democracy and Rights Commission were outlined in the Conservative manifesto in the aftermath of last year's prorogation litigation, w

The proposed €200 million merger between financial firms Link Group and Pepper will be subject to a full investigation by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC). The deal would see Link Group Administration Limited acquire sole control of Pepper Ireland Finance Holdings Limit

Police are on the hunt for a thief who stole an enormous, metre-long dildo called "Moby" from a sex shop. The dildo weighs nearly 20 kilograms and retails for around £1,000 ($1,250), HuffPost reports.

The Courts Service has "developed five years in the past five months" in terms of thinking, planning and actions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chief Justice Frank Clarke has said. Speaking at the launch of the service's annual report for 2019, which he said "seems now like a different era", he welco

Lay members have been appointed to a number of Judicial Council committees and nominated for the panel of inquiry. Kieran Coughlan, Claire Archbold, Professor Maeve Conrick, Patrick Doyle and Professor Bernard McCartan have been appointed as lay members to the judicial conduct committee, which has p

The slow progress of UK-EU talks poses a "real threat" to the Northern Ireland peace process, Justice Minister Helen McEntee has said in her first discussion with her northern counterpart. Ms McEntee spoke with Justice Minister Naomi Long by phone yesterday in their first direct conversation since t

Retired solicitor Paul Kennedy has unexpectedly withdrawn from the recruitment process for the Northern Ireland Assembly’s commissioner for standards. Mr Kennedy was nominated earlier this month for the role, which has responsibility for ensuring that MLAs uphold high standards of conduct in p

Our regular round-up of deals involving Irish law firms. Submit your deals to newsdesk@irishlegal.com. Arthur Cox has worked with US law firm Akin Gump LLP to advise a group of unsecured creditors on an Irish scheme of arrangement which was approved by the High Court yesterday.

New counter-espionage legislation to boost MI5 powers and create a new register of foreign agents is reportedly set to be introduced in the UK following the Russia report. The report from the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC), published yesterday, suggested that the intelligenc

A review of support measures for stressed prison officers has moved forward with the appointment of two professionals to lead the review. Siobhan Keating, a consultant psychologist in Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, and Gillian Robinson, the HR director of the Probation Board for Northern Irel