Tuesday, 21 October 2025
09:15 - 13:15
(
4 hours )
Online
Join Ireland’s only dedicated employment equality event - your essential update on the latest legal developments shaping workplace equality. Gain expert insight into key legislative and case law changes that directly affect your organisation.
Hear from leading employment equality experts ,including The Honorable Ms Justice Marguerite Bolger and Conor Power SC. We are delighted to welcome back, Maeve Regan as Chair. Whether you’re advising on equality issues or driving policy within your HR team, this event offers invaluable CPD and practical guidance to support compliance and inclusion.
Whether you're a senior HR professional, an employment law practitioner, or a representative at hearings, staying up to date with legal developments is critical. To provide accurate, practical advice, pursue or defend claims effectively, and keep your organisation aligned with best practice, you need clear, current insight.
This unique event brings together Ireland’s leading equality law experts to analyse recent case law, legal reasoning, and how emerging decisions are reshaping the legislative landscape. You'll also receive detailed notes and tools designed to support your everyday work.
NOTE: Speakers in this event are asked to assume that delegates have a reasonably sound knowledge of employment equality law. This event is not suitable for beginners in this field.
Experienced employment law practitioners, in-house lawyers and HR professionals.
By attending, you will:
Find out what's on the programme for Equality Employment Equality Law Update 2025.
Day 1
Familiarise yourself with the functions of our online event to ensure you maximise return on your investment. Laura McKee, Knowledge Partner, Legal Island.
Setting the scene and what to expect from the day. Maeve Regan, Consultant Solicitor in Human Rights and Employment Law
With Ms Justice Marguerite Bolger, High Court Judge
The UK Supreme Court’s 2025 judgment in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers confirmed a strict binary interpretation of "sex" under equality law. This session explores how that reasoning may influence Irish law where legal sex is determined under the Gender Recognition Act 2015, but the Employment Equality Acts still refer to “man” and “woman” in binary terms.
With case law such as Hannon v First Direct Logistics Ltd (DEC-E2011-066) confirming protection for transgender workers and recent legislative changes extending maternity rights to transgender men (Work Life Balance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2023), Ireland could face similar definitional challenges in the years ahead.
In this session, Cathal McGreal BL will cover:
Includes 10-minute Q&A with Cathal McGreal BL
Stretch Your Legs, Get Away from the Screen, and we will see you in 25 mins
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion began as a moral imperative, evolved into a corporate badge of virtue, and is now facing backlash and scrutiny. From rainbow-washing to performative posts, public trust is waning and critics are asking if DE&I has gone too far. So where does it go from here?
In this session, our expert will ask:
Includes 10-minute Q&A
See you in 15 minutes
Almost all employment equality rights in Ireland are derived from EU legislation. Therefore, employment equality cases decided at the CJEU have a huge influence on our domestic laws and often set a precedent that must be followed by courts in Ireland. Cases at the European Court of Human Rights can also have a big impact in Ireland. Michelle Ní Longáin, Partner, Byrne Wallace Shields LLP, provides an in-depth analysis of the year’s important international cases and other overseas developments in the equality field.
Other international developments this year include:
NOTE: Subjects covered in this session may vary and will focus on the most important CJEU/ECtHR cases and other international developments as at October 2025.
Includes 10-minute Q&A with Michelle Ni Longain
Day 2
Laura McKee, Knowledge Partner & Maeve Regan welcome delegates back and summarise key learning points from Day 1 of the event
AI is transforming recruitment and HR decision-making, but it brings serious legal and ethical risks. As of February 2025, the EU AI Act imposed new obligations on employers using AI for hiring, screening or performance evaluation. Combined with Ireland’s employment equality laws, this means discriminatory outcomes, even unintended ones, can lead to legal exposure.
In this focused session, Niamh Cassidy, Senior Associate, Bird & Bird, will cover:
You will gain a clear understanding of the compliance landscape and how to future-proof people processes in a tech-driven workplace.
Includes 10-minute Q&A with Niamh Cassidy.
Stretch Your Legs, Get Away from the Screen, and we will see you in 25 mins
Kiwana Ennis BL provides an overview of this year’s important Irish employment equality cases before the Labour Court, High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court and highlights the key lessons for employers and employment law practitioners.
NOTE: Subjects covered in this session may vary and will focus on the most important Irish cases as at October 2025.
Includes 10-minute Q&A with Kiwana Ennis BL
See you back in five minutes
We cover a lot of equality issues elsewhere in this event. In this final session, Conor Power SC explores other equality matters not discussed in depth in other sessions, but which are nonetheless impacting Ireland, such as:
NOTE: Subjects covered in this session may vary from those shown and will focus on the most important employment equality developments as at October 2025 that are not explored in detail elsewhere in this programme.
Includes 10-minute Q&A with Conor Power SC.
Final words of Day 2 from Maeve Regan
Marguerite Bolger is a judge of the Irish High Court and currently sits in the non-jury and judicial review list. She was previously a Senior Counsel and practised extensively in employment law and equality law before the Irish and European courts. She is the author of a number of legal articles and textbooks including the 2nd edition of ‘Employment Equality Law’ due to be published by Roundhall Thomson Reuters shortly.
Niamh Cassidy is a Senior Associate in Bird & Bird's International HR Services group in Ireland, specialising in employment law matters both domestically and internationally.
She advises on all aspects of the employment relationship, in both contentious and non-contentious matters, for a broad range of multinational clients. She delivers thorough, clear, and pragmatic legal advice.
Niamh provides strategic support and guidance on a wide range of day-to-day employment matters, including the handling of investigations, disciplinary and grievance matters, performance issues, redundancies, settlement negotiations, and the drafting of contractual and policy documentation. She also advises on cross-border HR issues and projects for international clients.
She regularly supports clients on the employment law aspects of corporate transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, outsourcings, and the restructuring of organisations.
On the contentious side, Niamh advises employers on a broad range of employment litigation and claims in the Workplace Relations Commission, the Labour Court, and the Civil Courts.
Kiwana Ennis graduated from UCD in 1998 before completing her Barrister-at-Law degree at the Honourable Society of Kings Inns. She was called to the Bar of Ireland in 2000. She specialises in employment and equality law and, as an experienced practitioner, has been involved in all aspects of advising and representing clients at various stages of the litigation process. She appears regularly before the Workplace Relations Commission, the Labour Court, and the civil courts acting for both employer and employee and has been involved in cases concerning both the private and public sector. She has also been engaged periodically to act as an independent investigator in workplace investigations.
Conor Power is a senior counsel.
He has been practising barrister for 20 years and his areas of practice areas include employment law, equality and human rights law.
Conor has represented and advised private, institutional, corporate and State clients
Michelle is a Head of Employment Law at Byrne Wallace Shields LLP, was appointed Senior Counsel by the government in 2024, and is the firm's Compliance Partner. She is also Head of the firm’s Public Sector Group. She has extensive experience in employment, equality and administrative law. Michelle qualified as a solicitor in Northern Ireland, practising there in employment and equality law from 1994 before moving to England and Wales in 1996 and returning to Ireland in 1999 when she joined the firm. Michelle advises public and private sector clients, primarily employers, on complex areas of employment, equality and administrative law.
Laura joined Legal Island as a Knowledge Partner in January 2023. Prior to that she worked as an employment law and dispute resolution solicitor with Eugene F. Collins (now Addleshaw Goddard LLP), A&L Goodbody Dublin & Belfast and as an In-House Employment Counsel Secondee at Google.
Laura is also a qualified personal and executive coach, yoga and mindfulness teacher.
Dr. Niloufar Omidi is the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Policy Officer at the University of Limerick (UL). She also serves as the Minister’s appointee to the Advisory Committee on Racism and Racial Equality under the Department of Justice, which oversees the implementation of Ireland’s National Action Plan Against Racism (NAPAR).
She holds a PhD in International Human Rights Law from the Irish Centre for Human Rights, University of Galway, and an LLM in International Law. Her research explores the right to peace as a foundation for inclusive and equitable societies. Previously, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Galway, contributing to the Respect in Higher Education Project and the Gender Pay Gap Project.
As a legal consultant with the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), Dr. Omidi has worked on projects covering child protection in Ireland, the rule of law, xenophobia, and anti-Muslim hatred. She has also collaborated with civil society organisations to produce reports and policy papers on a wide range of equality-focused issues, including the rights of the Irish Traveller Community, refugee rights, racism in Ireland, gender equality, and the lived experiences of disabled people in Ireland—supporting the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). Her work also includes research on minority and women’s rights in Iran.
She has lectured in Human Rights Law for Advocates and Activists, supervised postgraduate students, and delivered training on Equality Law to HR professionals, staff, and management teams in higher education.
Maeve Regan is a Consultant Solicitor in Human Rights and Employment Law. Maeve is the Consultant Editor and co-author of Employment Law (second edition, Bloomsbury Professional, 2017) and General Editor and co-author of the first edition of Employment Law (first edition, Bloomsbury Professional, 2009). Maeve trained with Arthur Cox and subsequently worked with Community Law and Mediation, FLAC and Mercy Law Resource Centre, where she held the position of Managing Solicitor. Since 2009, Maeve has been a lecturer on the Law Society Diploma in Employment Law.
