Aillil Fingin O’Reilly SC

Senior Counsel with over 20 years’ experience in complex commercial, regulatory, and insurance litigation. I specialise in company law, professional indemnity, and regulatory enforcement, and have acted in many cases where commercial, reputational, and statutory risks overlap.

I advise and represent corporate clients, professionals, public bodies, and regulators in contentious and advisory matters involving directors’ duties, negligence, governance, statutory compliance, and litigation strategy. My practice regularly engages with cross-border enforcement, sanctions, procurement, and constitutional issues.

Clients and instructing solicitors value my responsiveness, discretion, and ability to integrate legal risk management with wider commercial or regulatory strategy.

Recent and representative matters include:

• Professional indemnity litigation – extensive experience in defence and contribution claims involving legal, healthcare, and financial professionals, often under insurer instruction
• WWTAI Aviation litigation – representing parties in Commercial Court proceedings concerning aircraft detained under the EU Sanctions Regime following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; issues include jurisdiction, insurance liability, and cross-border risk allocation
• Advisory work on EU Sanctions compliance – advising regulated entities and counsel teams on the structure, applicability, and enforcement mechanics of EU sanctions under both company and administrative law frameworks
• Lord Iveagh v. Dublin City Council – acting in property and trust dispute involving statutory powers, local government, and public asset recovery

Longstanding academic and professional interest in company law, corporate governance, and litigation. Publications reflect a focus on directors’ duties, enforcement, statutory frameworks, and the interface between company law and public regulatory structures.

Key contributions include:

• Co-author of Civil Proceedings and the State (3rd ed., Round Hall, 2019) — a leading text on litigation involving State actors, statutory appeals, and administrative law principles, co-written with Mr. Justice Anthony Collins SC and James O’Reilly SC.

• Contributing Editor, Consolidated Companies Acts by Lyndon McCann and Thomas Courtney (2nd ed., Tottel Publishing), compendium of Irish company legislation and key European legislation (1963-2012)

• Contributing author to multiple editions of the Law Society’s Business Law (Oxford University Press)

• 2023 to date, Member Football Association of Ireland Disciplinary Committee

• 2023 to date, Member of the Governance and Ethics Committee for Cycling Ireland and Chair, National Complaints and Disciplinary Committee.

• 2022 – 2025, served as a Board Member and Chair of the Finance Committee at Mount Anville Montessori Junior School.

• 2025 to date, Member Governance Committee Lady Elizabeth Boat Club

• 2023- 2025, Member Governance Committee of Rowing Ireland

• Legal Assessor to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland and Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority (IAASA), and have acted both for and against regulatory and State bodies in judicial review, statutory appeals, and constitutional litigation.

• My legislative drafting work includes mandates from the Department of Enterprise (Companies Act 2014 reforms and EU Directives), Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and the Department of Health.