Catherine Donnelly

Catherine Donnelly undertook her LL.B. in Trinity College Dublin and is a former scholar of the College. She then completed a B.C.L. in Oxford, at Magdalen College, followed by an LL.M. and Fellowship in Harvard. She practised as a litigation attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York from 1999-2001 and was admitted to both the New York State and Federal Bars (Eastern and Southern Districts). During this time, she also taught an asylum law workshop at Columbia Law School and worked on pro bono projects for the Yale Law Clinic and Human Rights Watch.  

From 2001-2004, she completed a D.Phil. in Oxford, again at Magdalen College, during part of which time she held a college lectureship shared between Corpus Christi College and St John's College, Oxford.  

She joined the Law Faculty of the University of Oxford in 2005 as a University Lecturer and Fellow in Law at Wadham College, teaching Administrative, Constitutional and European Community Law. She joined the Law School in Trinity College in January 2007. She was elected to Fellowship of the College in 2011 and is an Associate Professor.   

She has published and presented conference papers in the areas of human rights law, European Union law, administrative law, election law, constitutional law, comparative law, procurement law and public-private partnerships and is an author of De Smiths’ Judicial Review.  

Catherine combines her academic work with practice as a barrister.  She was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2003 (Gray's Inn) and from 2004-2005, she undertook pupillage at Blackstone Chambers, and became a member of Blackstone Chambers in 2008.  

She began practice at the Bar of Ireland in 2008, and was called to the Inner Bar and became a Senior Counsel in 2021.  She has appeared in cases before the Court of Justice and General Court of the European Union, the European Court of Human Rights, and the national courts, including acting for the Data Protection Commissioner in the Schrems II litigation on EU-US data transfers and for Ireland in the Apple State Aid appeal.  She practises in the areas of EU, Constitutional, Administrative and Commercial Law.