EXPERTISE 

Stephen is a partner in the Dispute Resolution department and is also the head of the Regulatory group in Ireland.

Stephen provides strategic advice to clients in all areas of regulatory and administrative law and has extensive experience in acting in professional misconduct inquiries and in litigation before the Irish superior courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union. He has developed a significant expertise in acting for and advising regulators and private sector entities, includes complaints, criminal regulatory prosecutions, statutory applications, professional indemnity insurance issues, the entitlement of overseas professionals to practise in Ireland under EU and domestic law and drafting legislation.

Stephen previously acted in fitness-to-practise inquiries and in suspension applications, confirmation applications, judicial reviews, and as legal assessor for the board of a statutory regulator. Stephen has also acted in complex litigation affecting regulators and regulated entities. 

EXPERIENCE 

Recent experience includes advising:

• The Law Society of Ireland on the entitlement of solicitors to obtain a practising certificate in light of Brexit and where the solicitor is based overseas;
• The Law Society of Ireland on solicitors’ practice issues including solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance, solicitors accounts and other matters. Stephen has acted as legal advisor to the Society’s Professional Indemnity Insurance Committee
• Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland in respect of its regulatory functions, including in respect of the Board's consideration of sanction in fitness-to-practise proceedings. 
• Health Information and Quality Authority on an application to Court to cancel registration of a nursing home in Co Kerry in November 2020 due to the risks to the life and health of the residents arising from the failures of the management of the nursing home in the context of a Covid-19 outbreak.

Representative Clients include: 

In Stephen’s previous roles, he advised: the Law Society of Ireland, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, the Health Information and Quality Authority, the Council of the Bar of Ireland, Tusla (the Child and Family Agency), Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, CORU (The Health and Social Care Professionals Council), the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council, the Property Services Regulatory Authority, the Charities Regulator, the Mental Health Criminal Law Review Board, and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

TRAINING DELIVERED 

Stephen also lectures on important regulatory issues for clients, for key senior management and staff of various regulatory and associated bodies, and on a number of Law Society diploma programmes, including acting as course consultant for the Society’s Certificate in Enforcement for Public Bodies.