Keynote Speakers

Justice Úna Ní Raifeartaigh
Judge of the Court of Appeal, Dublin

Úna Ní Raifeartaigh was Reid Professor of Criminal Law in Trinity College Dublin (1991-5) but left academia to engage full-time in practice at the Bar. She practised as a barrister in the Irish courts between 1993 and 2016, first as a Junior Counsel and, after 2009, as a Senior Counsel. She was appointed as a judge of the High Court in 2016 and the Court of Appeal in 2019. Her practice at the Bar concentrated on criminal and public/constitutional/human rights law and she was also involved in number of public inquiries. In the High Court she heard cases in the areas of judicial review, chancery, and crime, and was also in charge of the "international child abduction" list.  In the Court of Appeal, she sits on a wide variety of cases spanning all areas of civil and criminal law.

Lord Beckett
Judge of the Supreme Courts, Scotland

Lord Beckett was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Courts in May 2016 after serving as a temporary judge from 2008 in the High Court and the Court of Session. He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh and was admitted as a solicitor in 1986, working in private practice before being admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1993. He was appointed an advocate depute [High Court prosecutor] in 2003 and became a Queen's Counsel in 2005. He served as Principal Advocate Depute and then Solicitor General for Scotland in 2006. He became a sheriff in 2008 and was appointed as an appeal sheriff on the establishment of the Sheriff Appeal Court in 2015.

Justice Paul McDermott
Judge of the High Court, Dublin

Paul McDermott is an Irish judge who currently serves as a Judge of the High Court. Since 2021, he is the judge in charge of several High Court lists including the Central Criminal Court, Special Criminal Court, Extradition, Criminal Assets Bureau and Bail lists. Mr. Justice McDermott attended University College Dublin and the King's Inns. He became a barrister in 1980 and subsequently became a senior counsel in 1999. Mr Justice McDermott was appointed to the High Court in June 2012 and he has presided over cases affecting several areas of law, including judicial review, company law, personal injuries, extradition, medical negligence, and homicide trials. He is the author of legal texts on the Misuse of Drugs Act and the law of prisons in Ireland.

HHJ Sarah Whitehouse KC
Circuit Judge, England