Dermot Gleeson

Last updated

Dermot Gleeson
SC
25th Attorney General of Ireland
In office
15 December 1994 –26 June 1997

Dermot Gleeson SC (born 22nd April 1948) is an Irish barrister who served as Attorney General of Ireland from 1994 to 1997.

Contents

Educated in Blackrock College, Dublin and University College Dublin. Gleeson holds B.A. and LL.M degrees and qualified as a barrister at the King's Inns, Dublin. His father was a barrister and was later appointed a Circuit Court Judge, and two of his brothers are also barristers. Gleeson was called to the Irish bar in 1970 and first practised law on the Cork Circuit, away from Dublin, Ireland's main legal centre. In the early 1970s Gleeson was a part-time lecturer in Constitutional Law at University College Cork.

Gleeson moved to Dublin when he was appointed a Senior Counsel in 1979, at age 30. He is believed[ who? ] to be the youngest 'silk' appointed in the common law world in the last century, beating noted counsel such as the Australian QC Tony Morriss, who was made a silk at 32.[ citation needed ]

Gleeson was a leading barrister in Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s before he became a senior government advisor and then a businessman. From 1994–1997, Gleeson was Attorney General of Ireland, serving as chief legal advisor to the government of Taoiseach John Bruton. Gleeson is a Bencher of King's Inns. He is also a visiting fellow at the School of Law at University College Dublin.

In more recent years Gleeson became known for his business career. In 2000, he joined the board of Independent News and Media Plc as a non-executive director and in 2003, he was appointed Chairman of Ireland's largest bank Allied Irish Banks. His time in charge of AIB Group coincided with the Global Financial Crisis, which resulted in the enormous drops in its share price, leading to the infamous 'egging' incident at AIB Group's May 2009 shareholder's meeting. [1] In 2003, Gleeson was appointed ombudsman for the Diamond Trading Company (DTC), the marketing offshoot of diamond mining giant De Beers. In 2007, he was appointed chairman of the Governing Body of University College, Cork.

Gleeson is a former Auditor of the Literary and Historical Society, University College Dublin, and winner of the Irish Times National Debating Championship.

He currently resides in Dublin. He is married and has four children.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barrister</span> Lawyer specialised in court representation in certain jurisdictions

A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching the law and giving legal opinions.

The Attorney General of Ireland is a constitutional officer who is the legal adviser to the Government and is therefore the chief law officer of the State. The attorney general is not a member of the Government but does participate in cabinet meetings when invited and attends government meetings. The current attorney general is Rossa Fanning, SC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Atkinson, Baron Atkinson</span> Irish politician

John Atkinson, Baron Atkinson, was an Irish politician and judge. He was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1905 to 1928.

John Monroe PC, QC, was an Irish lawyer and judge.

Alexander Martin Sullivan, SL was an Irish lawyer, best known as the leading counsel for the defence in the 1916 treason trial of Roger Casement. He was the last barrister in either Ireland or England to hold the rank of serjeant-at-law, hence his nickname The Last Serjeant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ignatius O'Brien, 1st Baron Shandon</span> Irish lawyer and politician

Ignatius John O'Brien, 1st Baron Shandon,, known as Sir Ignatius O'Brien, Bt, between 1916 and 1918, was an Irish lawyer and politician. He served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland between 1913 and 1918.

Nial Fennelly is a retired Irish judge who served as a Judge of the Supreme Court from 2000 to 2014, Advocate General of the European Court of Justice and a Judge of the European Court of Justice from 1995 to 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bar of Northern Ireland</span> Northern Irish professional association

The Bar of Northern Ireland is the professional association of barristers for Northern Ireland, with over 600 members. It is based in the Bar Library, beside the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast, together with the Bar Council of Northern Ireland and the Executive Council. The Executive Council has taken on many of the functions formerly exercised by the Benchers of the Inn of Court of Northern Ireland, which was established at a meeting of the Bench and Bar held on 11 January 1926.

Rickard Deasy PC was an Irish lawyer and judge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James John Skinner</span> Zambian politician

James John Skinner was an Irish-born Zambian politician and jurist. He was the first Minister of Justice of independent Zambia and the only White member of Zambia's first cabinet. Following his time as a Zambian jurist, Skinner moved to neighbouring Malawi, where he was Chief Justice of Malawi from 1970 to 1985. His final judicial appointment was as a Social Security Commissioner in England from 1986 to 1996.

John George Gibson PC, QC, was an Irish lawyer, judge and Conservative politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bar of Ireland</span> Irish professional association

The Bar of Ireland is the professional association of barristers for Ireland, with over 2,000 members. It is based in the Law Library, with premises in Dublin and Cork. It is governed by the General Council of the Bar of Ireland, which was established in 1897. The Council is composed of twenty-five members: twenty who are elected, four co-opted, and the Attorney-General, who holds office ex officio. Every year, ten members are elected for two-year terms; five by senior counsel and five by junior counsel.

George Bernard Francis Clarke is an Irish barrister who was Chief Justice of Ireland from July 2017 to October 2021.

John Francis Moriarty PC, QC was an Irish lawyer and judge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Cherry</span> Irish politician and judge (1859–1923)

Richard Robert Cherry PC, QC was an Irish politician and judge. He was Attorney-General for Ireland from 1905 to 1909, a judge of the Irish Court of Appeal and subsequently Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench in Ireland 1913–1916. A Liberal, he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Exchange in 1906. Cherry's published works include Lectures on the Growth of Criminal Law in Ancient Communities, 1890, and a book on the Irish Land Acts which was described as an indispensable part of every Irish barrister's library. He was president of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland between 1908 and 1911.

Maurice F. Healy BL, (1887–1943) was an Irish lawyer and author, who is best remembered for his legal memoir The Old Munster Circuit.

Sir Edward Sullivan, 1st Baronet, PC (Ire) was an Irish lawyer, and a Liberal Member of Parliament for Mallow, 1865–1870 in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He was also Solicitor General for Ireland, 1865–1866, Attorney General for Ireland, 1868, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, 1870. Created a baronet, 29 December 1881, from 1883 to 1885 he was Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Charles Mathew</span> Irish-born judge

Sir James Charles Mathew was an Irish-born judge. Born in an Irish Catholic family in Cork, Mathew was educated at the largely Protestant Trinity College, Dublin, before joining the English bar. In 1881, although still a junior barrister, he was appointed to the High Court of Justice, where he sat in the Queen's Bench Division and was said to be the best nisi prius judge of his time. He was promoted to the Court of Appeal in 1901, before resigned from the bench due to health reasons in 1905.

Paul Anthony McDermott, SC was an English-born Irish lawyer and academic. He was a prominent criminal barrister who often prosecuted cases in the Irish superior courts. He was also known as a lecturer in law at University College Dublin and for frequent commentary on legal matters in the Irish media.

Rossa A. Fanning is an Irish barrister and legal academic who has served as the Attorney General of Ireland since December 2022. His practice at the Bar has been primarily focused on commercial litigation and insolvency.

References

  1. ↑ Lewis, Michael (March 2011). "When Irish Eyes Are Crying". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
Legal offices
Preceded by Attorney General of Ireland
1994–1997		Succeeded by
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.