Loughlin Deegan, Partner, ByrneWallace LLP

Loughlin represents and advises public-sector and private-sector clients across the full range of contentious and non-contentious employment law matters. He has advised and represented major Irish and multi-national companies, especially in the pharmaceutical and medical devices sectors. He has also acted in many contentious employment matters and industrial disputes. Before joining the firm, he previously served as Special Adviser to the Attorney General and worked in the Employment Law Unit of Ibec, latterly as Acting Head of Employment Law.

Michael Kennedy, Partner, ByrneWallace LLP

Michael has specialised in employment law for nearly 35 years and is consistently ranked as one of Ireland’s top employment lawyers. Michael was Chairperson of the Law Society’s Employment and Equality Committee from 2010 to 2012 and is the former Secretary of the Irish Society for Labour Law. When Law Awards were introduced in Ireland in 2012, Michael was named as Ireland’s first Employment Lawyer of the Year.

Michelle Ní Longáin, Head of Employment and Equality Law, ByrneWallace LLP

Michelle has extensive experience in employment, equality and administrative law. As well as being one of Ireland’s leading employment‐law practitioners, she has also practiced in Northern Ireland, England and Wales. Michelle advises public and private sector clients, primarily employers, on complex areas of employment, equality and administrative law.

As well as being head of ByrneWallace LLP’s Public Sector Group and its Compliance Partner, Michelle is a member of Council of the Law Society of Ireland is currently the elected Senior Vice President. She is the chairperson of the Law Society’s Task Force on Gender, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.  

Rhona Murphy, Consultant, ByrneWallace LLP

Rhona has more than 20 years’ experience advising on employment law, industrial relations and equality matters. She worked for Ibec for almost 15 years and was Ibec’s Head of Employment Law Services from 2007 to March 2020. She has advised a significant number of major Irish companies and organisations in the public and private sectors, including in the health sector and pharmaceutical and medical devices sectors. She was previously a board member of the Equality Authority and has a keen interest in industrial relations and alternative dispute resolution.  

Lorraine Smyth, Partner, ByrneWallace LLP

Lorraine has over 15 years’ experience in all aspects of contentious and non-contentious employment law. She has particular expertise in advising clients in the area of business transfers/transfer of undertakings and has advised numerous national and international clients through outsourcing, restructuring, redundancy and collective redundancy processes. She also has represented numerous defence and plaintiff clients in restraint of trade litigation. In additional she has established expertise in the areas of data protection legislation.  

Emmet Whelan, Partner, ByrneWallace LLP

With over ten years’ employment law experience, Emmet advises on all aspects of employment law and in particular specialises in contentious employment matters and employee benefits. Clients include senior executives and large public and private sector employers.  

Emmet is co-author of Tottel's Employment Law in Ireland and the Law Society Employment Law Manual. He has also lectured on employment law issues and contributed to the Irish Employment Law Journal, the Employment Law Review and the Journal of Public Affairs Ireland. 

Mary Connaughton, Director, CIPD Ireland

Mary Connaughton is passionate about developing people and workplaces to be at their best.

Mary leads the growth, development and contribution of the people profession in Ireland.  She pushes forward the CIPD agenda of people, wellbeing, inclusion and flexible working through research, policy and member engagement.  She has a wealth of HR experience, supporting individuals and companies on the strategic people agenda, HR practice and organisation development. Previously she headed up HR Development at employers’ group Ibec, consulted widely across the public and private sector and held organisation development roles in the financial and consulting sectors.

Mary is on the Boards of the Public Appointments Service and the Retirement Planning Council and represents the people profession in Ireland at the European Association of People Management. 

Meg Dunphy, HR Policy and Engagement Manager, CIPD Ireland

Meg is an experienced HR professional, previously working in HRBP roles for Irish public sector and global enterprises.  She has a passion for showing the impact of the people profession through creating positive workplace culture.  She is qualified to Masters level and is a lifelong learner in the field of people management.    

Meg chaired the CIPD Southeast committee in Ireland for four years. During that time, she built strong networks providing key learning events and networking opportunities within her region and on the national committee. She began her role as HR Policy and Engagement Manager in August 2022, where she creates value for CIPD customers through the annual calendar of engagement, developing relationships with key stakeholders and wider business community.  

Karen Hackett, Head of People Experience, Corporate Development and HR, PTSB

Karen is an experienced HR Leader who has worked in the Financial Services sector since 1988, starting her career in Banking with Trustee Savings Bank, and moving into HR in 1999. Karen has worked across a number of HR briefs in Irish Life since 2001 and Permanent TSB since 2013. She was appointed Head of People Experience in Permanent TSB in 2020 having previously held the role of Head of HR Operations in Permanent TSB since 2013.

Karen has a passion for driving connection to organisational purpose through Cultural Evolution, Workforce Engagement, Stakeholder Management and collaboration with Employee Resource Groups to enable a diverse and inclusive high performing organisation. Karen has been at the forefront of Permanent TSB’s new Ways of Working Programme since 2020, championing Permanent TSB’s ‘Hybrid Workplace’. She has successfully led the HR People and Culture stream of a transformative acquisition of portfolios from Ulster Bank to Permanent TSB in 2022.  Karen is a member of the IOB, having being awarded Culture Champion, 2023 by the IOB. Karen is a Fellow of the CIPD and has a passion for continuing professional development and education, having completed a Master’s in Business Studies through IMI/UCC (2020) specialising in Strategic HRM, Leadership and OD & Transformation.

Joyce Rigby Jones, Co-Managing Director, Voltedge Management

Currently the Managing Director of Voltedge Management, a leading Irish HR and Management Consultancy, Joyce has extensive experience in Human Resources management, strategy and organisational development. She is currently a Non-Executive Director of CIPD Ireland Ltd. Joyce set up Voltedge following many years in senior HR positions in multinational corporates and European start-ups and is passionate about the alignment of HR with business strategy, addressing complex business issues, and providing HR advice to leaders.

Caroline McGrotty, Employment Manager, AHEAD

Caroline McGrotty is the Employment Manager with AHEAD overseeing its projects on inclusive employment one of which is The WAM Programme, a graduate level work placement programme with the public and private sector. Caroline has worked for AHEAD since 2012 and has over 15 years’ experience of working and volunteering within the disability sector and various organisations within the Deaf community. 

Deirdre Miller, Barrister-at-Law

Deirdre is a practising barrister with a general practice and a particular interest in EU law, and data protection and privacy law. Deirdre has worked as a data protection officer at a public sector body (Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland), a commercial semi state organisation (Bord na Móna), as a legal counsel specialising in data protection at a law firm (ByrneWallace) and professional services firm (KPMG). Deirdre has also delivered training and talks on data protection. 

Deirdre served on the board of a non-governmental organisation with a focus on privacy, including a 2-year term as chair, and is currently serving as a charity trustee. Deirdre is a member of AI and Data Working Group of the Confederation of European Data Protection Organisations (CEDPO), and the Executive Committee of the Association of Data Protection Officers (ADPO), the Irish network for data protection officers. 

Deirdre has over 8 years’ experience in corporate governance and data protection, Deirdre is adept at applying risk management approaches to data protection issues. 

Hannah Wayte, Project Lead Trainer, Women’s Aid

Hannah steers the Women’s Aid Employer Engagement Programme, a specialist service for employers with the aim of creating supportive and safe workplace environments for victim-survivors of domestic violence and abuse. Hannah has worked in training and development since 2009 with a particular interest in diversity, equity, and inclusion. She holds a MSc in Equality Studies with a research focus on the effective implementation of domestic violence leave in Ireland.