A senior counsel, Úna was called to the Inner Bar in October, 2018.
Úna’s principal practice areas include commercial law (such as banking and insurance law and also, taxation and pensions law where her experience includes appearances before the Court of Justice of the European Union), chancery (including company law and trusts) and judicial review. As a junior counsel Úna was a prosecutor for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Prior to commencing practice at the Bar in 2000, Úna held a variety of legal and tax positions in both private practice and industry in the banking and finance department of one of Ireland’s leading law firms, as an in-house lawyer in one or Ireland’s main banking groups and in the taxation department of one of the “Big 4” accountancy practice.
Úna has frequently been instructed as counsel in arbitrations including: on behalf of a semi-State body in respect of the supply of defective capital assets (where the arbitrator was an English QC with particular expertise in the type of asset concerned); on behalf of a semi-State body in construction disputes, including an ongoing arbitration in relation to contamination by pyrite); on behalf of an insurer on the proper construction of the Solicitor Acts 1954 to 2002 (Professional Indemnity Insurance) Regulations; on behalf of insurers in cases where cover has been declined (including on grounds of fraud); and, on behalf of a public body in an arbitration conducted under UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (as set out in Schedule 1 to the Arbitration Act, 2010). In addition to appearing as counsel, Úna has acted as arbitrator in a pensions law dispute.
In 2004 Úna was accredited by the Bar of Ireland as a mediator and regularly appears as counsel in mediations, particularly in Commercial Court and chancery cases.
In addition to frequently lecturing on litigation and commercial law topics, Úna assisted on the second edition of Finucane, Buggy with Tighe, Irish Pensions Law and Practice. She has acted: as Examiner for the Law Society of Ireland (Diploma in Applied Finance Law); as Examiner and Lecturer for the Honourable Society of King’s Inns (Taxation Law); and, as Moderator, Irish Tax Institute (Stamp Duty (Part II, AITI Exams)).