Legal

The University of Galway Office of Corporate and Legal Affairs provides independent legal advice to the University. It reports into the Office of the Chief Operating Officer.

We support University of Galway’s strategic and operational goals by providing independent legal advice.

We aim to protect the interests of the University of Galway community and manage potential legal risks to it, particularly given the increasingly common occurrence of litigation.

This includes providing a wide range of legal advice on contracts, policies, compliance matters, dispute resolution, property matters and other legal issues.

There are many legal issues that arise where the first point of contact should be with the relevant team in the University, for example the HR Office for employment and staffing matters, the Procurement Office for purchasing matters and contracts, the Research and Innovation Office for research and industry innovation contracts, and the Dean of Students for student matters.

A request for legal advice must be approved by either the applicable University Management Team (UMT) member or the Head of School or Unit. A request or necessity for external legal advice from our Legal Services Framework has a process which must be followed, the first step of which is to fill out the Legal Services Procurement Form. The form must be approved and submitted by the Budget holder.

We do not provide staff and students with advice on personal legal matters.

Our office also manages and provides independent oversight of data protection and freedom of information compliance.