Seán Guerin SC

Seán Guerin SC has been elected to chair the Council of the Bar of Ireland, taking up the role from September 2024 and succeeding Sara Phelan SC. He was re-elected as chair for a second year in 2025.

Educated at St Peter's College Wexford and St Andrew's College, Dublin, he studied law at UCD and Université de Nancy II (France). He qualified as a barrister at the King's Inns and has postgraduate qualifications in law from UCD (commercial law) and King's College London (European law). He has been in practice at the Bar of Ireland since 1998 and was called to the Inner Bar and appointed Senior Counsel in 2013.

Based at the Law Library in Dublin, he practises mainly in public law – including criminal, regulatory, and administrative law. He has served for many years on the Bar Council's professional practices committee and has been chair of the criminal State bar committee since 2022. In 2014, Mr Guerin was commissioned by the government to report on then minister for justice Alan Shatter's handling of complaints made by Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe. Mr Shatter resigned after Mr Guerin's report was published in May 2014. In 2019, the Supreme Court upheld Mr Shatter's challenge to sections of the Guerin report because he received no notice of certain conclusions made by Mr Guerin which were damaging to Mr Shatter's reputation.

Career history

• Chair, Council of the Bar of Ireland (September 2024–present)
• Chair, Criminal State Bar Committee (since 2022)
• Member, Professional Practices Committee, Bar Council (many years)
• Senior Counsel in public, criminal, regulatory, and administrative law (since 2013)
• Barrister, Bar of Ireland (since 1998)

What Seán Guerin could bring to the Bar of Ireland Council: His appointment to a second term reflects confidence in his leadership during a period when the profession faces significant structural and technological change. His extensive experience conducting major government inquiries into systemic issues, combined with his deep roots in criminal and public law practice, positions him to advocate for the profession's interests while addressing regulatory challenges and modernization pressures facing Ireland's barristers.