In the latest in our series, profiling Irish and Northern Irish people who work in the legal sphere, we spoke with Dr Seán Columb, who is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool, and who has done a great deal of work on organ trafficking.

In the latest in our series, profiling Irish and Northern Irish lawyers and jurists who have worked abroad, or are working abroad, we spoke with Sarah McGuckin, from Downpatrick, Co. Down. Sarah began her legal career as a Barrister in Northern Ireland before moving into international development, where she worked on rule of law and human rights issues in Southern Africa, Myanmar and the Balkans. Last year, Sarah moved back home to Ireland and transitioned into the tech sector, where she is currently working for TikTok on their Legal Policy Operations team. Her role is a bridging function between law enforcement and TikTok, to protect users in emergency situations. She’s also involved with IRLI, volunteering on its advisory fundraising sub-committee.

In the latest in our series profiling Irish and Northern Irish lawyers who have worked abroad, or are working abroad, we spoke with Jack Pope, from Sligo, who is a Human Rights Officer with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and currently based in Kosovo. Jack has been working in human rights and international law for the past four years with both NGOs and international organisations, mainly on the analysis, monitoring and reporting of human rights issues. He previously worked on protection issues related to human rights defenders and journalists and on women, peace and security, including combatting gender-based violence in the DRC. A large part of his work involves writing on the implementation of human rights legislation by states and providing recommendations on how best to uphold human rights standards.

In the latest in our series profiling Irish and Northern Irish Lawyers who have worked abroad, we spoke with Professor Raphael Heffron, who is originally from Cobh in County Cork and works in the energy and climate sector. He is one of the foremost scholars in the world on energy justice, which is about the application of human rights across the energy life-cycle, i.e. applying the rule of law in the energy sector. He has published over 140 publications of different types and is the most cited scholar in energy law worldwide (1340+Scopus). Professor Heffron has also received an EU Jean Monnet Professorship and is the youngest ever to receive it twice (in 2016 and 2019); it is one of the highest awards for non-science academics in the EU. He is also elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland in 2018.

By Andrea Vizsolyi

29-year-old Chikondi Mandala is an Assistant Registrar at the High Court of Malawi. In her early twenties, she became the youngest magistrate in Malawi’s history. Today, on International Women's Day, we’re shining a light on Chikondi and the work she does.