Senan Allen is an Irish lawyer who has been a judge of the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

since June 2022. He was formerly a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

and was a judge of the High Court between 2018 and 2022.

Education

Allen attended

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

, graduating in 1981 with a BCL degree.

Legal career

He was

called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1983 and became a senior counsel in 2000. His practice was focused on chancery law and commercial litigation. In 2015, Allen was appointed to undertake a review of allegations made by a whistleblower relating to the

Oireachtas The Oireachtas ( ; ), sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the Bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of the president of Ireland and the two houses of the Oireachtas (): a house ...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis. His report concluded that no misconduct took place at the inquiry.

Judicial career

High Court

Allen was nominated as a judge of the High Court in July 2018 and was appointed in October 2018. He has heard cases involving property law, defamation, insolvency,

European Arrest Warrant The European Arrest Warrant (EAW) is an arrest warrant valid throughout all member states of the European Union (EU). Once issued, it requires another member state to arrest and transfer a criminal suspect or sentenced person to the issuing stat ...

s, contract law, election law, injunctions, judicial review, probate law, child law, and company law. In proceedings related to '' Comcast Int. Holdings v Minister for Public Enterprise & ors and Persona Digital Telephony Ltd v Minister for Public Enterprise & ors'' he permitted discovery of documents related to the

Esat Digifone licence controversy It is alleged that as a result of benefits extended to Michael Lowry by Denis O'Brien that Esat Digifone was given an unfair advantage in the procurement of a mobile phone operator's licence. The Moriarty Tribunal found evidence of collusion be ...

. Since 2019 he is a member of a committee of the Judicial Council relating to personal injuries guidelines. He was the judge in charge of the Chancery list of the High Court as of 2021.

Court of Appeal

He was nominated to the

in April 2022 and was appointed in June 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Senan Living people High Court judges (Ireland) Judges of the Court of Appeal (Ireland) Irish Senior Counsel Alumni of University College Dublin Alumni of King's Inns Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Irish lawyers 21st-century Irish judges 21st-century Irish women judges