The inside track

The Office of the Attorney General may not command the spotlight of a courtroom drama, yet its work touches the lives of every citizen and occupies a genuinely unique position in Irish public life. Lisa McCarthy and Aindreas Phelan bring us behind the scenes

At the heart of Irish governance, nestled on Merrion Street in Dublin, sits an institution whose influence quietly shapes the lives of every citizen in the State.

The Office of the Attorney General may not command the public spotlight of a courtroom drama or the headline-grabbing profile of a high-stakes commercial deal, yet the legal work it produces – from urgent emergency legislation to landmark interventions before the International Court of Justice – touches everything from airport passenger caps to genocide conventions.

With a team of over 100 legal professionals advising 18 Government departments, drafting complex legislation, and representing Ireland on the world stage, the office occupies a genuinely unique position in Irish public life.

For solicitors seeking work of consequence – work that Attorney General Rossa Fanning SC says carries “transcendent significance” for every citizen – it may well be the most compelling legal employer in the country.

The Office of the Attorney General is, both physically and institutionally, at the centre of Government.

The Merrion Street Office comprises advisory counsel and, within the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to the Government, parliamentary counsel. It has grown steadily in recent years and currently employs over 100 legal professionals, of which 46 are solicitors.

The Chief State Solicitor’s Office – one of the three main branches of the Attorney General’s Office – also employs a significant number of solicitors and is located in Smithfield Hall, Dublin 7 (see December 2025 Gazette, p47).

Regular recruitment campaigns are conducted through the Public Appointments Service (via Publicjobs.ie).

The office provides advice to Government as a whole and to individual Government departments on all initiatives that warrant legal advice.

AG Rossa Fanning explains: “In practical terms, that involves advising Government in relation to all new legislative projects that require both legal advice by advisory counsel and expert drafting by parliamentary counsel.

"It also involves the provision of legal advice and representation in litigation involving the State, and advice on all of the complicated issues of transposition and compliance with EU law that arise on a regular basis.”

Breadth of work

The central constitutional mandate of the Attorney General forms the backdrop to a remarkably wide and varied range of legal matters with which the office engages.

The AG points to the scale, breadth, and topical nature of the work that the office undertakes. “We advise Government on everything from the passenger cap at Dublin Airport, to the nudification of images on social media, to international protection.

"Particular highlights for me to date have been the reference of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, under article 26 of the Constitution, to the Supreme Court by former President Higgins, and defending the challenge to the constitutional propriety of Ministers of State attending and participating at meetings of Government.

“Internationally, I have intervened, on behalf of Ireland, in two disputes before the International Court of Justice concerning the Genocide Convention, one of which was brought by The Gambia against Myanmar in relation to allegations of genocide against the Rohingya population, and the other of which was brought by South Africa against Israel in relation to allegations of genocide in Gaza.

"This work, both domestic and international, is extremely important in highlighting Ireland’s long-standing policies that focus on an ethical, rules-based, and human-rights-compliant international order.”

Advisory counsel are key members of the legal team that represent the State in litigation, domestically and internationally, before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the General Court.

Cases before EU courts arise most frequently when an Irish court refers a question of EU law to a European court, but they can also arise in circumstances where the European Commission commences infringement proceedings against Ireland or where Ireland wishes to intervene in litigation before the CJEU, which involve questions that may affect the State’s interests.

Another side of the work of the office, and one which is growing in demand, concerns the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel’s role in drafting Government legislation, such as bills and certain statutory instruments (including regulations transposing EU law and Government orders).

The primary workload of parliamentary counsel is determined by the Government Legislation Committee, which sets the legislation programme at the beginning of each legislative session. The programme is approved by Cabinet before being published by the Chief Whip.

The Summer Legislation Programme includes 38 bills scheduled for priority publication, and a further 26 for priority drafting.

The AG acknowledges that “the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel is particularly likely to grow as the political appetite for an expansion of that capacity is high, and it is essential to have a well-resourced office in order to assist Government in introducing legal reform”.

Of the growing demand for legislation, Margaret Kennedy (parliamentary counsel) says: “While Government initially signals legislative priorities in the Programme for Government, the demand for legislation can occur at any time, for example to respond to emerging developments and unforeseen emergencies.”

In that regard, she recalls four acts that were drafted urgently in 2023, which were required at the time to address acute energy challenges arising from the conflict in Ukraine and, in recent weeks, the urgent drafting of the National Oil Reserves Agency (Amendment) Act 2026 to reduce the levy collected on certain fuel products.

The public interest

Behind this extensive portfolio of work is a diverse group of lawyers whose motivations and experiences reflect the unique nature of the office.

Úna McEvoy is the group coordinator for a team of seven advisory counsel in the office who each advise on a wide range of legal and policy areas, including education, children’s rights, asylum, and migration.

For Úna, it was the opportunity to work at the intersection of law, policy, and politics that attracted her to work in the office. On the differences between working as a solicitor in the private and public sectors, she comments:

“In Government advisory roles, the primary client is the State itself, and the focus is on the public interest rather than on individual or commercial interests. This means that advice must take into account not only what is legally permissible, but also what is appropriate in terms of policy instructions and long-term consequences.”

Margaret Kennedy leads a team of nine parliamentary counsel who draft legislation for five Government departments, including Transport, Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and Climate, Energy and the Environment.

Margaret trained as a solicitor in Limerick, specialising primarily in property and probate work.

An interest in public affairs and administrative law guided her career path, leading her to take up a position in the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel when an opportunity presented itself in 1999.

Stephen Tunstead joined the office in 2024 as an advisory counsel: “I was intrigued by the opportunity to practise primarily in the public-law field, with a view to specialising in constitutional, EU, and administrative law – all subjects I greatly enjoyed in UCD.”

Regarding the quality of the work, Stephen comments: “By its very nature, the matters that an advisory counsel is involved in can be both complex and sensitive, which results in a high-profile and interesting workload that can have a direct impact on society.”

Unique set of skills

David Hennessy works as a parliamentary counsel in the office and specialises in drafting legislation for a number of Government departments, including those responsible for the finance, education and youth, and defence briefs.

Like many others in the office, he trained in a large corporate law firm before joining the office in December 2021.

He was motivated to work alongside a group of talented lawyers in the discipline of legislative drafting and to develop expertise and skills in this important legal field.

David felt that working in the office offered him an opportunity to acquire a unique set of in-demand skills, and he was also motivated by “the nature and impact of the work of a parliamentary counsel in the office, touching as it does on advancing the latest legislative developments in the State, and directly impacting how our society is governed”.

Advisory counsel and parliamentary counsel work closely together in the office. For example, while the main role of a parliamentary counsel is to transpose the policy of a Government department, as set out in a general scheme, into a draft bill that is expressed in clear and precise terms and that is legally robust, advisory counsel are involved throughout the drafting process.

An advisory counsel is assigned to every bill being drafted by a parliamentary counsel, and the advisory counsel may be required to advise on legal issues that arise during the drafting process.

Stephen Tunstead observes that “teamwork and collaboration are central to the success of the office. You are working alongside dedicated and experienced public-law lawyers, motivated by public-service values. This collegiality in the office is unmatched, in my view”.

Progressive organisation

The office aspires to be a modern, progressive organisation that strives to be at the cutting edge of legal innovation. 

The AG is acutely aware that “the future success of this office is absolutely dependent on it continuing to attract lawyers of a very high calibre”. A combination of strong legal ability and broader professional judgement is an essential characteristic of all lawyers who join the office, he says.

Úna McEvoy observes: “The core of the advisory counsel role is the provision of excellent legal analysis – advising on draft legislation, interpreting legislation, constitutional provisions and case-law with precision, and applying the law to often complex or novel situations.”

Regarding parliamentary counsel, Margaret Kennedy says that, in addition to sound knowledge of the law and excellent communication skills, lawyers need an “eye for detail, keen judgement in assessing what information and instructions are needed, and an ability to conceptualise and provide solutions that give clear legislative effect to Government policy”.

Career pathways within the office are carefully designed to support new advisory counsel and parliamentary counsel in developing specialist expertise and skills. They benefit, also, from an ambitious, structured, and highly engaging programme of training and professional development.

For example, following recruitment, advisory counsel typically spend a number of months in the office’s secondee training programme before being seconded for a period to work as a legal adviser within a Government department.

The office currently has 47 advisory counsel seconded to Government departments. Stephen Tunstead’s experience of secondment has been positive and he is currently enjoying advising on a broad range of legal issues in the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.

Hands-on experience

Within the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, a solicitor or barrister recruited as a parliamentary counsel is not expected to be an experienced legislative drafter.

New parliamentary counsel participate in a comprehensive training programme and work with senior colleagues to gain proficiency in the discipline of legislative drafting through practical, varied, and day-to-day experience.

Training for new advisory counsel and parliamentary counsel also includes visits to Luxembourg and Brussels, where recruits meet Irish and European lawyers working in the CJEU, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Council, as well as seconded colleagues serving as legal attachés in the Irish Permanent Representation to the EU, who are currently preparing for Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the EU later this year.

Maintaining a growth mindset is a core feature of work in the office. Úna McEvoy says: “Learning is not treated as something separate from one’s role in the office – it is embedded and integral to the work itself.”

Advisory counsel and parliamentary counsel benefit from a strong culture of continuous professional development throughout their careers in the office.

Through in-house and external training opportunities, attendance at conferences, and exposure to cutting-edge issues in practice, including AI governance and digital-services regulation, lawyers develop a unique expertise in legal and public-sector work.

Roles with impact

The impact and public value of the office’s work are perhaps best captured by the AG himself, who offers the following perspective on the work of the office: “While much of the work in the private sector is enormously valuable and extremely fulfilling for the lawyers who are engaged in it, I do think that there is something particularly special about the opportunity to work in Government.

“The work we do doesn’t just affect one client’s narrow commercial interests, as can sometimes be the case in the private sector. On the contrary, it affects everybody and, if a solicitor joins our office as a parliamentary counsel drafting legislation or as an advisory counsel advising Government, they know that their advice has transcendent significance in that it will affect every citizen in the State.

"In a world where everybody seeks meaning and value in their work, we are in a position to offer something that many other law offices cannot.”

Lisa McCarthy is parliamentary counsel and Aindreas Phelan is communications officer in the Office of the Attorney General.