Three-way race for next Bar Council chairperson

Maura McNally SC

The candidates in the running to succeed Maura McNally SC, who is held in great esteem by the bar and is regarded as having been an effective spokesperson for the profession, are Sara Phelan SC, Séamus Clarke SC and Seán Ó hUallacháin SC.

If Ms Phelan — who called to the Bar in 1996 and the Inner Bar in 2013 — is successful in securing election, she will become only the third woman to ever hold the position of Bar Council chairperson. She has already spent some time working for women’s advancement at the bar, for instance as chair of its law and women mentoring committee.

Mr Clarke, currently the Bar Council’s vice-chairperson, is a highly respected criminal practitioner and would take the reins at a time of increased scrutiny on the paltry legal aid fees paid to criminal defence lawyers, particularly in the District Court. He has participated in recent barristers’ protests outside the Criminal Courts of Justice. He called to the Bar in 2000 and the Inner Bar in 2017.

Mr Ó hUallacháin has had the longest career of the three, having called to the Bar in 1991 and taken silk in 2012. As well as being a former vice-chairperson of the Bar Council, he is also a former chairperson of the Family Lawyers Association and would take on the prominent role amid slow progress by government ministers on long-promised family law reform.

The new chairperson will be determined this week by a vote taken among Bar Council members.