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UCC School of Law Appoints Three New Adjunct Professors

22 Sep 2021
l-r Professor Mark Poustie with The Hon Ms Justice Marie Baker, Ms Emily Logan, Mr John Gaffney

The Hon Ms Justice Marie Baker, Ms Emily Logan and Mr John Gaffney take up their three-year terms this month.

UCC School of Law is delighted to announce that three new adjunct professors have been appointed for three-year teams, beginning in semester one of the 2021/22 academic year.

The Hon Ms Justice Marie Baker was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court in 2019. She is a graduate of University College Cork (M.A, Philosophy and BCL) and the Honourable Society of King's Inns (BL).

Ms Justice Baker was called to the Bar in 1984 and was called to the Inner Bar in 2004. She practiced in the Cork and Munster circuits. In 2012, she was appointed as a part-time Commissioner of the Law Reform Commission. She was appointed to the High Court in 2014, and to the Court of Appeal in 2018.

Already a great friend to the School, Ms Justice Baker contributes to its activities in a number of areas. She has chaired the annual European Union Environmental Law Enforcement Conference, organised by the Centre for Law and the Environment, on a number of occasions and most recently in December 2020. Ms Justice Baker also recently chaired a CPD event hosted by the School on the theme Prescriptive Easements: Another Cliff-Edge? held earlier this year. She has a particular interest in the law of property and landlord and tenant.

As an adjunct professor, Ms Justice Baker brings a wealth of expertise and experience to the School across a wide range of areas including land law and conveyancing, general chancery, family law and environmental law.  

Speaking about her appointment, The Hon Ms Justice Marie Baker said:

It is a great personal honour to accept the office of adjunct professor in my old alma mater, with which I have maintained a close link throughout my career. My time as a student at UCC was formative in many ways and I have great and enduring regard for it as a seat of learning. The continued discourse between the courts and the student and teaching body is important, and a relationship from which both derive great benefit. I look forward to learning and teaching at UCC during my tenure as adjunct.

Ms Emily Logan was appointed a Commissioner of the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission, the body with oversight for complaints against An Garda Siochana in Ireland, in February 2021. She was previously Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission from 2014 to 2019 and before that was Ireland’s first Ombudsman for Children, an independent statutory position with a national mandate, appointed by the President of Ireland. Ms Logan held this post for over 10 years from 2003 to 2014. 

A paediatric nurse by background, Ms Logan holds multiple qualifications including an LLM in Human Rights Law from QUB and an MBA from UCD Smurfit. She has received two honorary doctorates and multiple other awards for her work. As an experienced human rights and children’s rights practitioner, Ms Logan brings a wealth of knowledge, influence and experience to the School and her appointment contributes to its mission of shaping a just society.

Speaking about her appointment, Ms Emily Logan said:

It is a great honour to be associated with such an esteemed institution as UCC and with academics whose work has very much guided and influenced my own work, in particular over the past seventeen years.

Mr John Gaffney was appointed to Al Tamimi & Co, a leading corporate law firm in the UAE and throughout the Middle East & North Africa, in 2014, to lead the international arbitration practice of its Abu Dhabi office.

He is a graduate of University College Cork (B.C.L. (1990) and LL.B. (1991)) and the University of Amsterdam (LL.M. in EU and International Trade Law, 1998, distinction). Mr Gaffney has been admitted to practice in England & Wales and the Republic of Ireland. He has served as a member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Commission on Arbitration and ADR since 2018, an ICC Arbitration Ambassador on the Belt and Road Commission since 2020, and an Editorial Board Member of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes Review (Oxford UP) since early 2021. 

Mr Gaffney has developed a distinguished international career in a variety of law firms in Ireland, London, Paris and Abu Dhabi, as well as with the United Nations in Geneva.  He is now recognized as a leading international arbitration practitioner.   He brings a wealth of experience and expertise and, as an alumnus, serves as a role model to School of Law students regarding the kinds of international careers that are possible for them.  

Speaking about his appointment, Mr John Gaffney said:

It is an extraordinary honour to be appointed by my alma mater, UCC, as an Adjunct Professor to its globally recognised School of Law. I look forward to teaching on the School’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, contributing further to the School’s development of ADR in its curricula, and fostering its links with international legal practice. I welcome the opportunity to continue my family’s tradition of teaching in UCC, which began in the 1940s with my grandfather’s appointment as Professor of Surgery.

Welcoming the three new adjunct professors, Dean of the School of Law Professor Mark Poustie said:

UCC’s Adjunct Professor programme is designed to ensure the appointment of distinguished individuals who have made or have the potential to make significant and tangible contributions to the University.   This can be readily demonstrated in the School’s latest Adjunct Professor appointments.  I am delighted to welcome the Hon Ms Justice Marie Baker, Ms Emily Logan and Mr John Gaffney to UCC and the School of Law as Adjunct Professors.  All are eminent and distinguished in their various fields and will make a tremendous tangible contribution to the School, inspiring students as role models through their diverse careers, achievements and leadership.  I look forward to working with our new Adjuncts in the coming years.

 

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