Commissioners Archive

Owen O'Sullivan is a Consultant in the Litigation & Investigations department of William Fry. He was Managing Partner of the firm from 2020 to 2024 and from 2005 to 202 was head of William Fry's Litigation & Investigations Department. He is a graduate of University College Dublin and of the Law Society of Ireland and was admitted to the roll of solicitors in 1989. In practice, Owen specialises in large scale commercial disputes, particularly shareholder and investment disputes, as well as disputes and advisory work in the financial sector. He has considerable experience in regulatory proceedings across many industry sectors as well as in Tribunals, Inquiries and Investigations. He is consistently ranked as a leading lawyer in the international legal directories Chambers Global and The Legal 500 EMEA. Owen served as a member of the Law Society’s Litigation Committee for six years and has been a member of the International Bar Association for many years. He was a founding committee member and subsequently Chair of the Commercial Litigation Association of Ireland. He is also an IMI accredited Mediator. Owen was appointed as a Commissioner in November 2025.An expert in regulation and governance, with a specialization in the legal regulation of charities, Professor Breen is a graduate of both UCD and Yale Law School. She teaches NGO Law & Governance and Equity and the Law of Trusts at UCD. A qualified barrister, she is the former President of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) and a member of the International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law's International Advisory Council. In 2021 Oonagh was appointed as Chair of the Independent Review of Charity Regulation in Northern Ireland and oversaw the publication of the Review Panel’s Report in 2022. A regular international speaker on comparative charity regulation matters, Oonagh has published extensively and is a co-editor (with Alison Dunn and Mark Sidel) of Regulatory Waves: Comparative Perspectives on State Regulation and Self-Regulation Policies in the Nonprofit Sector (Cambridge University Press, 2017), co-author of Law of Charities in Ireland with Philip A. Smith (Bloomsbury Professional, 2019) and co-editor with Noel McGrath of Palles: The Legal Legacy of the Last Lord Chief Baron (Four Courts Press, 2022). She has held both Fulbright and Government of Ireland Research Fellowships and has served as a Research Fellow at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University (2009), as an Ian Potter Foundation Fellow at ACPNS, Brisbane (2016) and as a Research Fellow at Carleton University, Ottawa (2025). Visiting appointments include De Paul Law School, Chicago, University Missouri Kansas City, University of California, Davis, Brooklyn Law School, Southern Illinois University and the University of Victoria, New Zealand. Oonagh was appointed as Commissioner in October 2025.

Ms Justice Eileen Roberts is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin (LL.B) and of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland. She was admitted to the roll of solicitors in 1991. Ms Justice Roberts worked as a solicitor with A&L Goodbody, specialising in commercial litigation and becoming both Head of Litigation and Chair of the firm. In her practice she specialised in large-scale commercial disputes including disputes in the areas of property, financial services, insurance, maritime and aviation. She was a committee member of the Commercial Litigation Association of Ireland (CLAI) and chaired the group which drafted the Good Practice Discovery Guide for use in court proceedings. She is a CEDR qualified mediator and a former committee member of the Irish Commercial Mediation Association.

Ms Justice Roberts was appointed as a judge of the High Court in July 2022. She sat in the chancery division from that date until she was assigned as a judge of the Commercial Court in October 2023. Ms Justice Roberts was appointed as a Commissioner in February 2024.

Damien Moloney is the full-time Commissioner in the Law Reform Commission having begun his appointment in April 2026. Damien is the former Director General of the Office of the Attorney General (2017-2026) where he led the Office in providing the highest standards of legal services to the Government, Government Departments and Offices. The Director General is the senior civil servant and non-political head of the Office. He is responsible for the effective and efficient management of the Office including particular financial responsibilities, strategic planning and direction, delivering outputs and outcomes, addressing cross-cutting matters involving the Office and, as Accounting Officer, being accountable before Oireachtas Committees as required. Damien has over three decades of public law experience having joined the Office of the Attorney General in 1995. He had a leading role in providing the State legal response during a number of significant crises affecting the State including the financial/banking crisis, Brexit and Covid. Damien was a junior counsel operating in the law library and South Eastern Circuit (1988-1995) with a general civil law practice. Damien is a graduate of a number of third level institutions - including Trinity College Dublin, Kings' Inns, University College Dublin, Smurfit Business School UCD and Institute of Directors. A particular area of interest to Damien is in the area of corporate governance. Through his contribution in the Office of the Attorney General and the Civil Service Management Board, Damien has contributed to improvements in governance both in the Office and across Government Departments and Offices.Mr. Justice Frank Clarke was Chief Justice of Ireland from July 2017 to October 2021. He was born in Walkinstown, Dublin in October, 1951 and was educated at Drimnagh Castle CBS and University College Dublin where he was awarded a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics (1972). Having completed his legal studies at King's Inns, he was called to the Bar in 1973 and to the Inner Bar in 1985. He practiced mainly in the commercial and public law fields (including constitutional law) and was twice appointed by the Supreme Court as counsel to present argument on references of Bills to the Supreme Court by the President under Article 26 of the Constitution. While at the Bar, Mr. Justice Clarke served for many years on the Bar Council including a term of two years (1993-1995) as its Chair. He also served as Chair of the Council of King's Inns from 1999 until 2004. He was a member of the Council of the International Bar Association from 1997 to 2004, serving as co-Chair of the Forum for Barristers and Advocates (the international representative body for the independent referral bars) from 1998 to 2002. Mr. Justice Clarke was appointed a judge of the High Court in November 2004. While a judge of the High Court, he was chairman of the Referendum Commission on the 28^th Amendment of the Constitution (Lisbon Treaty II) in 2009. Mr. Justice Clarke was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court in March, 2012. Chief Justice Clarke has been a member of the panel provided for in Article 255 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union since March 2018. In the academic field Mr. Justice Clarke was a professor at King's Inns from 1978 to 1985 and has been Judge in Residence at Griffith College Dublin from 2010 to date. He was appointed Adjunct Professor in the Law School in Trinity College, Dublin in September 2012, and Adjunct Professor of University College Cork in 2013. He was awarded the Griffith College Distinguished Fellowship Award in 2017 and was appointed a Pro-Chancellor of Dublin University in March 2022. Mr. Justice Clarke is chair of a Civil Legal Aid Review Group, which was established in June 2022 to review the civil legal aid scheme. He was appointed President of the Law Reform Commission in July 2022.

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