ByrneWallace LLP Partner Honoured with Senior Counsel Status

Friday, 24 June 2022 ByrneWallace LLP is delighted to announce that partner, and head of the firm’s Health and Social Care group, Sinéad Kearney, has been granted a Patent of Precedence, which entitles her to use the title of Senior Counsel. She is one of six solicitors awarded the title this year.

Sinéad is one of Ireland’s leading health and social care lawyers, and is head of ByrneWallace’s leading Health and Social Care group. A foremost legal practitioner, with over 30 years’ experience, she has played a pivotal role in legal practice, and in the development of Health and Regulatory Law, and Public Sector Administrative and Child Care Law. During this time, Sinéad has expertly engaged with government bodies, and other key stakeholders, including Judiciary, the Courts Services, the Gardaí, and non-governmental organisations.
 
Sinéad is a former chair and current member of the Law Society of Ireland’s Family and Child Law Committee. She lectures on the Law Society of Ireland’s professional training courses, and is a recognised authority on all aspects of adoption law, where she advises multiple state agencies on domestic and international adoption matters. 

Commenting on the appointment, Managing Partner Feargal Brennan, said, “I would like to pass on my sincere congratulations to Sinéad. The excellence of our lawyers is the bedrock of our firm, and this award recognises Sinéad as a uniquely talented practitioner. 

“Supported by her outstanding and dedicated team, it recognises her deep expertise, experience and dedication as a senior lawyer. Sinéad has spent her career carefully and astutely managing highly complex and sensitive social care issues, most frequently in advising the State on how to protect our society’s most vulnerable citizens.” 

Patents of Precedence are granted by the Government, under the terms of the Legal Services Regulation, on the advice of the Advisory Committee on the grant of Patents of Precedence. The Advisory Committee who grants Patents of Precedence is comprised of the Chief Justice, the President of the Court of Appeal, the President of the High Court, the Attorney General, the Chairperson of the Bar Council, the President of the Law Society and a lay member of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority nominated by the Minister for Justice.