Davy Lalor BL

Davy is a barrister in civil practice, with a focus on public and commercial law. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in EU law at the School of Law in Trinity College Dublin.  He is regularly instructed by the State, public bodies, commercial entities, and private clients to provide both contentious and advisory services.

Additionally, he holds a PhD – which was funded by Research Ireland – in comparative constitutional law from the School of Law & Government in Dublin City University, where he lectured in constitutional law and legal theory for several years. He also acts as a tutor on a range of programmes at the Honorable Society of the King’s Inns, in particular corporate insolvency law on the barrister-at-law-degree programme.

Prior to coming to the Bar, he worked as a trainee solicitor with McCann FitzGerald and subsequently read for the BCL master’s degree in law at the University of Oxford.

Below is a selection of recent cases in which Davy has acted:

Commercial/Chancery:

• GA Development v Companies Act 2014 (Record No. 2025/334 COS): junior counsel for respondent directors in the liquidation of an entity connected with a €450 million office and residential development known as “Camden Yard” – one of the most significant real estate developments in Dublin in decades.

• Currently acting for one of Ireland’s largest retail management companies in an ADR process.

• Central Bank v John Stanley Purcell: acted for Mr Purcell in an inquiry under Part IIIC of the Central Bank Act 1942 into Irish Nationwide’s business practices during the “celtic tiger” years.

• St Brigid’s RFC v St Laurence O’Toole Diocesan Trust (Record No. 2024/4595 P): acting for the Plaintiff in a dispute about the precise legal ownership of a site valued in excess of €1 million.

• Simro v Wright & Ors (Record No. 2019/5769 P): junior counsel in dispute involving members of the Wright’s of Howth business which was scheduled to run for 12 days in the High Court. Settled on confidential terms.

• Personal Insolvency: regularly appear unled for financial institutions in personal insolvency matters.

• Advisory Work: have provided advice across a diverse range of areas including trusts law, the conflict of laws, and the amenability – from a first principles perspective – of particular types of decision affecting commercial interests to judicial review, to some of the State’s largest commercial/private entities.

• Member of the Corporate Enforcement Authority’s panel of counsel.

Public Law

• Hegarty v AGS  [2025] IESC 36: junior counsel for the State in a Supreme Court appeal which clarified the scope of a standalone statutory power to dismiss members of An Garda Síochána outside of the “ordinary” processes.

• Friedman v RTB [2025] IEHC 477: junior counsel for the State in successful defence of a constitutional challenge to s.123 of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2004.

• Hartnett v Neary & DCC (High Court Record No. 2025 / 281 JR): junior counsel for the State in a constitutional challenge to the Housing Act 1988.

• Jones v Minister for Public Expenditure (Record No. 2024/1393 JR): junior counsel for the State in a constitutional challenge to the application of a particular pension scheme, due for hearing in November 2025.

• Cawley v Tipperary County Council & Ors (Record No. 2024/496 JR): junior counsel for the State in a constitutional challenge to certain provisions of the Planning and Development Acts. Settled on confidential terms.

• ESB v Good & Ors (SC Record No. 2023/0058): research junior counsel in a Supreme Court appeal on several aspects of the State’s compulsory purchase order framework.

• Re Article 26 and the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill [2023] IESC 24: research junior counsel to the successful counsel team appointed to defend the constitutionality of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill in the most recent Article 26 reference to the Supreme Court.

• The O’Toole Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Schools: research junior counsel in Scoping Inquiry into the most appropriate means of dealing with allegations of historical child sexual abuse in schools.

• Inherent Jurisdiction / Wardship: regularly appear in sensitive inherent jurisdiction and wardship matters

• Advisory Work: regularly provide advisory services to the Office of Attorney General across a range of matters such as the constitutionality of rent pressure zones and the implications for Ireland arising out of the State’s proposed ratification of certain international treaties. Also provide advice to both public bodies and private clients in diverse areas such as the recognition of professional qualifications across the EU, freedom of information, the duties owed by statutory and / or public entities, the Proceeds of Crime Act 1996, and the merits of judicially reviewing decisions of public bodies.

• Standards of Review and Article 40.1 in the aftermath of Donnelly v Minister for Social Protection’ (2023) 5 Irish Supreme Court Review 219.

• ‘Ontario (Attorney General) v G and ‘Principled’ Remedial Discretion: Lessons for Ireland’ (2022) 5(2) Irish Judicial Studies Journal 55.

• ‘Damache v Minister for Justice and Equality & Ors [2020] IESC 63’ Dublin Law & Politics Review (2021) 2(1) Dublin Law & Politics Review 51.

• ‘A Roadmap for Remedies’ International Society of Public Law, British and Irish Chapter, the London School of Economics, April 2025.

• ‘From Parliamentary Elections to the Criminal Code: the Value of Remedial Flexibility in Constitutional Review’ Contesting Constitutional Governance, Trinity College Dublin, June 2023.

• ‘Article 40.1 in the Aftermath of Donnelly v Minister for Social Protection’ Irish Supreme Court Review, Trinity College Dublin, November 2022.

• ‘Judicial Remedies for the 21st Century’ ICON-S: the Future of Public Law Global Conference, July 2021.

• ‘Remedial Judicial Discretion in Constitutional Review: A Comparative Analysis’ Annual Doctoral Workshop in Constitutional Theory, University of Sheffield, December 2020.