News & Events Joint Commercial Law Talk - 'Ireland's Commercial Court – The Case for U.S./Ireland Cooperation'

Join us for a joint Commercial Law talk, 'Ireland's Commercial Court – The Case for U.S./Ireland Cooperation' with:

The Hon. Mr Justice David Barniville, The Hon. Judge Frank Bailey (Ret.) and the Attorney General of Ireland, Mr Rossa Fanning.

Talk Description: The U.S. is now Ireland’s largest trading partner, finally replacing the U.K. after many generations. The volume of commercial disputes inevitably increases along with trading activity. On February 13, 2025, this talk will discuss dispute resolution processes in the Irish and U.S. legal systems. It is expected to touch on opportunities for collaboration between courts, alternative dispute resolution methods such as international mediation/arbitration, insolvency proceedings across borders, opportunities to practice law in both systems and how students can prepare for work across national lines.

When: Thursday 13th February 2025, 5pm

Where: Room MY243, Áras Moyola Building, University of Galway

Seating will be allocated on a first-arrival basis.

Bios:

The Hon. Mr Justice David Barniville: Mr. Justice David Barniville is the President of the High Court of Ireland.

He was appointed a judge of the High Court in December 2017 after almost 27 years in practice as a barrister and Senior Counsel in the Courts of Ireland and in the European Courts. He was the judge in charge of the Commercial Division of the High Court (2019-2021). He was, and is again, also designated as the Arbitration Judge to hear all arbitration related matters in the High Court. He was previously the judge in charge of the Strategic Infrastructure List in the High Court (2018-2019). David was appointed to the Court of Appeal in August 2021. He was appointed President of the High Court in July 2022. In that role he is ex officio a member of the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and the Council of State.

In July 2018, David was appointed as a member of Ireland’s National Group on the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and continues to hold that position. He was recently (October 2024) appointed to the ICC’s Governing Body for Dispute Resolution.

David is a member of the Board of the Courts Service and of the Judicial Council and is Chair of the Finance Committee of the Courts Service and of its Investment Committee. He is also a member of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board and of the (recently established) Judicial Appointments Commission.

He is a member of the Board of Trustees of BAILII (the British and Irish Legal Information Institute) and was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Academy of European Law (ERA) (2020-2023).

David was the President of the Association of Judges of Ireland (2019-2021) and is the current Chair of the Judges Forum of the International Bar Association (IBA). He is a judicial fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the International Society of Barristers, two leading US trial lawyer associations.

Prior to his appointment to the High Court in 2017, David was Chair of the Council of the Bar of Ireland (2014-2016) and Chair of Irish Rule of Law International (IRLI) (2015-2019).

He was a member of the Bars of Ireland and of England and Wales (Middle Temple) (and 20 Essex Chambers in London). He is a Bencher of the King’s Inns in Dublin and of Middle Temple in London.

David is also an adjunct professor of law in University of Limerick and University of Galway.

The Hon. Judge Frank Bailey (Ret.): Frank J. Bailey was appointed as a U.S. bankruptcy judge for the District of Massachusetts on January 30, 2009, and he served as Chief Judge from December 2010 until December 2014. He was born in Kingston, New York, received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service (BSFS), and his law degree from Suffolk University School of Law (Boston). He also served on the First Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel. Judge Bailey has taught various law courses at Boston University School of Law, Suffolk University School of Law, and New England Law School. Judge Bailey has also taught classes for judges, lawyers, and law students in Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Russia, and Argentina and has hosted judicial delegations from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Japan, and elsewhere.

Judge Bailey was the president of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, a voluntary association of bankruptcy judges that has existed for over 100 years. He served as the Judicial Member at Large on the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association and a member of the ABA House of Delegates. He recently served as the chair of the ABA Board Committee on the Profession, Public Service, and Diversity and as a member of the ABA Executive Committee.  Judge Bailey is currently the Vice Chair of the ABA Judicial Division, an association of over four thousand federal and state judges.

In practice, Judge Bailey was a partner at the Boston firm of Sherin and Lodgen, LLP, where he served as the litigation department chair and on the management committee.  He was an associate at the firm of Sullivan Law, LLP. He was a judicial law clerk to Hon. Herbert P. Wilkins, Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in 1980-81.

Judge Bailey is also devoted to charitable work. He is Chair of the Immigrant Learning Center, Inc. in Malden, Massachusetts, a school that offers free, intensive English education to new Americans.

Judge Bailey retired from the bench on June 1, 2022. He is now the President of Pioneer Public Interest Law Center, a public interest law firm in Boston.

Judge Bailey is married to Susan L. Cahill, M.D., F.A.C.S., and has two sons, Matthew, a lawyer at Sullivan & Worcester LLP in Boston, and Michael, an energy analyst at National Grid in the U.S.

Mr Rossa Fanning: Rossa Fanning was first appointed as Attorney General of Ireland on 17 December 2022, and was re-appointed to that position on 9 April 2024. Prior to his appointment, he was a Senior Counsel at the Irish Bar with a varied caseload spanning commercial law, judicial review, defamation and privacy law. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1999 and became a Senior Counsel in 2016. He is a CEDR Accredited Mediator and was admitted to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 2019. He was awarded BCL and LLM degrees from University College Dublin and holds an LLM from the University of Michigan.