Within the legal profession there has been an increased interest in taking on immigration work. This course is aimed at those practitioners who want to improve their knowledge of immigration law and practice.
The seminar, sponsored by the Client Complaints Committee, will be delivered by Fionnuala Connolly BL. Fionnuala will discuss areas of topical and current interest to members working in - or interested in working in - the area of Immigration Law. A representative of the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) will also attend and explain the operation of that office and their role as a co-regulator with the Law Society of Northern Ireland, which is a designated professional body (DPB) under Section 86 of the Asylum and Immigration Act 1999. The OISC may receive and investigate complaints about any immigration provider, including solicitors and barristers in Northern Ireland. It will therefore be of interest to understand their standards and functions.
Fionnuala Connolly was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1996 and has spent several years working at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and as a Senior Associate with White and Case LLP in Brussels. She is the author of Immigration Law in Northern Ireland: A Practitioners Guide (SLS 2011) and has delivered various papers in Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom on human rights, immigration law and EU law. Fionnuala's areas of practice include immigration law, EU law, judicial review, administrative law and human rights. She is Chairperson of the Bar Immigration Practitioners Association (BIPA) and Vice-President of the Franco-British Lawyers Society.