A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching the philosophy, hypothesis and history of law, and giving expert 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 Paul Gallagher, SC.
In England and Wales, a litigant in person is an individual, company or organisation that has rights of audience and is not represented in a court of England and Wales by a solicitor or barrister. Instructing a barrister and not a solicitor, for example through the Public Access Scheme, however, does not prevent the party on whose behalf the barrister had been instructed from being a litigant in person.
Dermot Gleeson SC is an Irish barrister who served as Attorney General of Ireland from 1994 to 1997.
Barristers in England and Wales are one of the two main categories of lawyer in England and Wales, the other being solicitors. Barristers have traditionally had the role of handling cases for representation in court, both defence and prosecution.
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.
Solicitor advocate is a hybrid status which allows a solicitor in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong to represent clients in higher courts in proceedings that were traditionally reserved for barristers. The status does not exist in most other common law jurisdictions where, for the most part, all solicitors have rights of audience in higher courts.
Christopher Palles, was an Irish barrister, Solicitor-General, Attorney-General and a judge for over 40 years. His biographer V.T.H. Delany describes him as "the greatest of the Irish judges". He served as the last Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer from 1874 until his retirement from the bench in 1916.
Richard (Dick) Ferguson QC, SC was a barrister and politician from Northern Ireland.
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.
Thomas Teevan was an Irish barrister and judge who served as a Judge of the High Court from 1954 to 1971 and Attorney General of Ireland from 1953 to 1954.
Sir James Peter Comyn was an Irish-born barrister English High Court judge. The scion of a prominent Nationalist legal family, Comyn was sent to England after they fell out with Éamon de Valera. Considered by many to be "the finest all-round advocate at the English bar", Comyn was appointed to the High Court of Justice in 1978, serving on the bench until his retirement in 1985.
John Eoin MacMenamin is an Irish judge who has served as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ireland since February 2012. He previously served as a Judge of the High Court from 2004 to 2012.
Peter Mitchel Andrew Charleton is an Irish judge who has served as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ireland since June 2014. He previously served as a Judge of the High Court from 2006 to 2014.
Gerard William Augustine Hogan, is an Irish judge, lawyer and academic who has served as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ireland since October 2021. He previously served as Advocate General of the European Court of Justice from 2018 to 2021, a Judge of the Court of Appeal from 2014 to 2018 and a Judge of the High Court from 2010 to 2014. Hogan first worked as a barrister and lecturer in law specialising in constitutional and administrative law.
Maurice Gaffney, S.C. was an Irish barrister, who at his death at 100, was the oldest practicing barrister in Ireland.
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.
Alexander Owens is an Irish judge who has been a judge of the High Court since February 2019. He formerly worked as a barrister with an expertise in criminal law.
Séamus Anthony Henchy was an Irish judge, barrister and academic who served as judge of the Supreme Court of Ireland between 1972 and 1988. Many of Henchy's judgments are considered to be influential in the development of Irish constitutional law.
