Heads of School

Philip Burke LL.B. (London), Barrister-at-Law

Philip Burke is Chief Operating Officer of Independent College Dublin and joint head of its Law School. He has been teaching and managing the delivery of law programmes at undergraduate and professional level for 14 years. Philip is a founding director of the legal publishing company Clarus Press. He is co-author of a textbook on the Law of Torts published by Roundhall. He teaches the Law of Equity & Trusts on the College’s Professional Law (FE1) programme.

Val Corbett, BCL; LL.M; Pg Cert.

Val Corbett graduated with BCL and LL.M degrees from University College Cork. In 2008, he completed a post graduate certificate in third level learning and teaching at Dublin Institute of Technology. Having formerly worked in the legal department in KPMG, Val was head of the undergraduate law school at Griffith College for seven years. He is the joint head of the Law School at Independent College Dublin. He teaches the Law of Torts on the College’s LL.B and Professional Law (FE1) programmes and the Law of Contract on the College’s Professional Law (FE1) Programme. Val’s research interests include the Law of Torts, Privacy and Employment Law. He is the co-author of the Law of Torts (Roundhall, 2003). He is author of Tort Nutcases (Roundhall, 2004). He is currently co-authoring a textbook on Employment Law (Clarus Press, 2009) with Dr Neville Cox of Trinity College Dublin. He is also currently authoring a second edition of his Tort Nutcases text. He has published articles in areas such as Qualified Privilege in Defamation (Independent Law Review); Image Rights (Quarterly Journal of Tort Law) and Mediation (Civil Liability & Courts Act, 2004; eds. Binchy & Craven).

Lecturers

Tomas  Clancy, MA, BA (Mod) Hons in Legal Science, Barrister-at-Law

Tomás Clancy is an immensely popular lecturer who has previously lectured in law in Trinity College Dublin, the Institute of Public Administration and, more recently, Portobello College. Tomás will lecture in Property law and Jurisprudence on Independent Colleges’ LL.B (Hons) programme, and will be Year Head of final year LL.B students. He will act as Programme Leader on the College’s proposed LLM in Comparative Media Law.

Dr. Maura Kelly, BCL; PDA; M.Phil.

Maura Kelly graduated from University College, Dublin in 1987 with a Bachelor of Civil Law, honours degree. She worked for four years as a taxation consultant with Price Waterhouse Coopers. In 1992 she joined Portobello College where she helped establish the first private law school in Ireland. From 1992 to 2000, she held the position of Head of Law School and senior lecturer in Constitutional law at Portobello College. In 1998, Maura was awarded a Masters in Philosophy in law from the University of Wales, Cardiff Law School. The thesis involved a comparative review of the succession rights of a surviving spouse and children.

From 2003 to 2007, while pursuing a Doctorate in Philosophy in law, Maura held the position of senior tutor in Constitutional Law on the Bachelor of Civil Law and Bachelor of Business and Legal Studies programmes at University College, Dublin. Her doctoral thesis involves a comparative study of private property rights under the Irish and United States Constitutions. Maura is currently awaiting the awarding of her doctorate and has plans to publish it.

Since 2007, Maura holds the position of senior lecturer in Constitutional law at Independent College Dublin on its LL.B and Professional Law (FE1) programmes.

Ciarán Patton, LL.B; Barrister-at-Law.

Ciarán Patton graduated with a degree in Law and German from Trinity College Dublin in 1997. Thereafter, he studied at the Honorable Society of King’s Inns, qualifying as a Barrister-at-Law in 1999. He teaches the Criminal Law and Equity and Trusts on Independent College Dublin’s undergraduate and Professional Law (FE1) programmes. He also teaches the Criminal Law at the Honorable Society of King’s Inns. He is currently writing Principles of Irish Criminal Law for Clarus Press.

Estelle Feldman, MA (D.U); MBA; (N.U.I), LL.B; (Wales); DCG(N.U.I.).

Estelle Feldman is a Research Associate in the School of Law, Trinity College since 1996. She is a contributing editor to Freedom of Information Law and Practice (Firstlaw, Dublin 2006); co-author Access to Information in Developing Countries, (Transparency International, Berlin, 1998). Estelle also contributes to the Annual Review of Irish Law on Information Law and the Ombudsman, Whistleblower Protection, and co-authors the chapter on Constitutional Law with Dr. Oran Doyle. She has published widely on judicial independence, whistleblower protection, freedom of information, public service accountability and children’s rights in healthcare. Estelle teaches Administrative Law and Constitutional Law on the College’s LL.B degree programme.

Nicola White LL.B, LL.M (Dub), Attorney at Law (New York), Mediator

Nicola White is regarded as a national and international expert in the area of dispute resolution.

She is the legal expert for the Law Reform Commission’s project on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). She was the principal legal researcher for the Commission’s Consultation Paper on ADR which was published in 2008. She is currently working on the Commission’s Final Report on ADR.

In 2010, Nicola was selected as a Weinstein International Fellow in Dispute Resolution by JAMS – which is the largest private ADR provider in the world. As part of her fellowship, she spent a number of months working in California in JAMS with some of the world’s leading academics and practitioners in the field of dispute resolution. She also spent time researching at the Gould Center for Negotiation and Mediation at Stanford University Law School.

Nicola is the Course Director and lecturer on the Diploma in Mediation programme at Independent Colleges. She has also spoken at a number of conferences, both in Ireland and internationally, on the area of dispute resolution.

Siobhán Cummiskey LL.B. (Dub.), LL.M. (Human Rights Law) (Nottingham), Attorney-at-Law (New York), Solicitor

Siobhán holds a LL.B from the University of Dublin, Trinity College and spent a Socrates year at Universiteit Leiden, The Netherlands. Siobhán graduated first in her class with a first class honours LL.M. in Human Rights Law from the University of Nottingham in 2003. Following this she worked with the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre in London on applications to the European Court of Human Rights, with Vigil India Movement in Bangalore, a national human rights organisation in India and with the Legal Aid Department of Malawi in Lilongwe defending capital punishment cases. Siobhán has been lecturing in Human Rights Law and Contract Law since 2005 and has been a practising solicitor since 2007. In 2006, Siobhán co-authored a report for the Law Society and DSBA on the incorporation of the ECHR into Irish law. She has also worked with the Irish Human Rights Commission and the International Human Rights Network. Siobhán publishes in the area of Human Rights Law and Contract Law and currently holds the position of Assistant Editor of the forthcoming Irish Human Rights Law Review (Clarus Press 2009). Siobhán joined Independent Colleges in 2009 and lectures in Constitutional Law for the Kings Inns Programme and Contract Law for the FE-1 Programme.

Mark Cockerill, LL.B; LL.M (Trinity College Dublin); Solicitor.

Mark Cockerill graduated with an LL.B degree from Nottingham Trent University and an LL.M from Trinity College Dublin. Mark is a practicing solicitor with Macaulay Graham Judge specialising in the area of telecommunications. His Masters’ thesis centred on a comparative analysis of common law positions on insanity and fitness to plead. In 2004, Mark was awarded 1st place overall in the Law Society of Ireland’s Entrance Examination in Company Law. In 2005, he was awarded 1st place in the Law Society of Ireland’s ‘Debating & Negotiating Competition.’ Mark teaches Company Law and Criminal Law on the College’s Professional Law (FE1) programmes.

Michelle Quinn, LL.B; LL.M (Trinity College Dublin).

Michelle Quinn graduated with an LL.B degree from Nottingham Trent University and an LL.M from Trinity College Dublin. Michelle is a trainee solicitor with Malcomson Law Solicitors. She is an accredited Civil & Commercial Mediator (Friary Law & ADR Group (UK). She holds memberships with the Mediators’ Institute of Ireland (MII) and the Irish Commercial Mediation Association (ICMA). She was a Senior Tutor with the Law Faculty at University College Dublin in the Law of Torts, Company Law, Land Law and European Union Law. Michelle teaches on the College’s Employment Law Diploma.

Justine Quinn, LL.B (Dub), LL.M (LSE), Attorney-at-Law (New York), Barrister-at-Law

Justine Quinn was a 1999 Entrance Exhibition Scholar at Trinity College from where she graduated in 2003 with a Bachelor of Laws. She qualified as an Attorney and Counsellor-at-Law in 2004 and has been called to the Bar of New York. She was called to the Bar of Ireland in 2005 and later completed a Masters in Laws at the London School of Economics. She is Course Director of the College’s New York Bar programme and is also teaches on the programme.

Barbara O’Neill, J.D.; BA; Attorney-at-Law (Florida).

Barbara O’Neill graduated with honours with a Doctorate of Law from Nova Southeastern University in 1997 after first receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Economics from the University of Texas in 1992. She was called to the Florida Bar in 1997 and subsequently called to the federal trial bar of the United Stated District Court for the Southern District of Florida in 1998 and the federal appellate bar of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit in 1999. She was a trial lawyer in the United States specialising in mass torts, class actions, product liability, pharmaceutical and medical malpractice litigation in both the state and federal courts for eight years prior to moving to Ireland. She has also advocated cases in state and federal courts of appeal, including the Supreme Court of the United States. Since moving to Ireland in 2006, Barbara has worked as a Consultantant Attorney prosecuting medical negligence, product liability, and pharmaceutical claims in the Irish Courts. She was admitted to the Roll of Solicitors of England and Wales in 2008.

Imelda Kelly, BBLS, Attorney-at-Law (New York), Barrister-at-Law

Imelda Kelly graduated from University College Dublin with an Honours Bachelor of Business and Legal Studies degree. She worked for a number of years in the non-governmental sector where she coordinated a law centre for people with disabilities. She was called to the New York Bar in January 2004, and subsequently attended the Honourable Society of King’s Inns and was called to the Bar of Ireland in 2005. She spent a year as a legal intern at the office of the Attorney General of Ontario in Toronto. She is a practicing barrister, and teaches on the College’s Honorable Society of King’s Inns and New York Bar Review programmes.

Gary FitzGerald, BA; Diploma in Legal Studies (Kings Inns), Barrister at Law.

Gary FitzGerald was awarded the Antonia O’Callaghan prize for Constitutional Law in 2005. He is a practicing barrister and lectures on the College’s Preparatory Programmes for the Entrance Examinations to the Kings Inns and the Law Society of Ireland. Gary also lectures Business Law on the College’s ACCA programmes.

Anastasia Ward, BCL; Barrister-at-Law.

Anastasia Ward is a practicing barrister and has over seven years teaching experience with the Law Society of Ireland’s Law School and on Legal Executive programmes in the Republic of Ireland. Anastasia teaches Contract, Tort and Civil Litigation on the College’s Institute of Legal Executive programmes.

Patricia Cronin, Solicitor.

Patricia Cronin has a number of years experience lecturing on professional and Legal Executive programmes. Patricia initially qualified as a Legal Executive before training to become a solicitor. As a student of the Law Society of Ireland she was awarded the Law Society Business Law Prize in 2002. Patricia teaches Property Law on the Professional Law (FE1) programme and Land Law & Probate on the College’s Institute of Legal Executive programmes.

Matthew Jolley, LL.B; Barrister-at-Law.

Matthew Jolley is a practicing barrister and was called to the Bar in 2006. Matthew teaches on the College’s LL.B degree programmes. Matthew also teaches Medical Negligence and Criminal Law.

Elizabeth Hughes, Dip LS

Elizabeth Hughes graduated from Letterkenny Institute of Technology in 2000 with a Certificate in Legal Studies. She then completed a Diploma in Professional Legal Studies in 2003. She sat on Council for the Irish Institute of Legal Executives for three years, and currently works for a high profile Dublin firm. Elizabeth teaches Legal Word Processing on the College’s Legal Secretarial Programme (ILEX).

Dr. John O’Dowd

Dr. John O’Dowd holds a BA from University College Dublin, an MBA from the Open University Business School and a PhD from University College Dublin. He has over thirty years experience in the field of employee relations as union negotiator, facilitator and mediator specialising in organisational change and dispute resolution. He is the author of a number of books including Employee Partnership in Ireland: A Guide for Managers, Oak Tree Press 1998; Interest Based Bargaining: A Users Guide, Trafford Publishing/OD Books: 2005; and Organisational Change through Partnership, Liffey Press forthcoming. He lectures in Employee Relations for Independent Colleges’ Law School.