John Breslin SC

John practises in the area of Banking and Financial Services law, Insolvency law, Chancery and international arbitration. With over 20 years’ experience, John has appeared not only in the High Court, but also the Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice. John has appeared as counsel for banks and other financial services firms in leading cases, including Eurofood IFSC, and has acted for the Central Bank of Ireland in the High Court, and before the Irish Financial Services Appeals Tribunal. John has also acted in a recent Central Bank statutory inquiry. John is Chairman of the Financial Services Bar Association.

John is the original author of Banking Law, the leading text in Ireland on the law and regulation of banks, now in its 4th edition – with the 5th edition coming soon.

John regularly contributes articles to the International Financial Law Review, and has been published in the Irish Jurist, the Dublin University Law Journal and the Dickinson Journal of International Law. John regularly lectures at the King’s Inns and UCD on current issues in financial services law, including the regulation of money laundering and terrorist financing, credit and security, and banking regulation. John has recently written extensively on cryptocurrencies and the law, and has advised on regulatory issues arising in the crypto sphere.

John is a member of the Northern Ireland Inn of Court and the Middle Temple. He has acted as expert witness in overseas litigation and arbitration. He is a CEDR accredited mediator, and speaks French fluently.

John has acted for various financial institutions on regulatory matters (including financial regulation, MiFID and AIFMD) and defending civil claims. He has appeared for a substantial creditor in a major international examinership in the aviation sector, and regularly advises banks and other creditors on credit, security and receivership issues. John has recently appeared in a Central Bank statutory inquiry, and in high-profile consumer litigation on the setting of variable interest rates.

Banking Law (4th edition, 2019) (with Elizabeth Corcoran BL)

Central Bank duty of Confidentiality (2020) Commercial Law Practitioner 27

Statutory illegality in Irish law (2016) Commercial Law Practitioner 95, 130

New Private Right of Action in Financial Services Law (2015) Dublin University Law Journal 17

Crypto-Assets – Regulation and Common Law (2022) 37 (6) Journal of International Banking Law and Regulation 231 (with David Sweetman BL and Coleen Wegmann)

John is a regular speaker at the King’s Inns/UCD White Collar Crime Diploma, the UCD Masters in Commercial Law, and the UCD undergraduate BCL/Business and Law courses. John is also a regular speaker at the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, held annually at Jesus College, Cambridge.

John has done a substantial amount of pro-bono work.

In his role as Senior Counsel, John is an active participant in the Bar’s mentorship programme for junior members of the Bar, and has supervised Ph.D. and Masters candidates studying in the area of banking and financial services law. John is also interested in the development of the law of Restitution in Ireland, and the advocacy role in different regulatory contexts – namely, statutory inquiry, appeal and court proceedings. As Chairman of the Financial Services Bar Association, John contributes to the promotion of the Bar of Ireland as a centre of excellence in the provision of advocacy skills and specialist legal advice to institutions and directors/managers of regulated firms.