Aisling Byrne is partner in A&L Goodbody's Employment & Incentives group in Belfast and has over 20 years' experience in advising on employment and equality law. Aisling advises on contentious employment litigation, employment aspects of commercial transactions and procurement. Aisling is qualified to practice in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and she is a qualified mediator. She also specialises in data protection law and she has both Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/E) and Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) qualifications. She regularly delivers training to businesses on GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 and she advises on a broad spectrum of data protection issues including data breaches, data protection impact assessments, data subject access requests and data sharing agreements.
Areas of Expertise
Employment/Litigation & Dispute Resolution/Corporate Immigration Services/General Data Protection Regulation
Experience Advising:
- Advised a multinational telecommunications company in relation to restructuring, redundancy and transfer of operations from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland.
- Engaged by a multinational financial institution to undertake complex workplace investigations.
- Engaged by an NI business to mediate in a highly contentious employment dispute.
- Advised a multinational recruitment and outsourcing business on NI employment issues and delivered training to the SMT on jurisdictional differences between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
- Advised a large public sector organisation in relation to the TUPE implications and obligations in a high value tendering process.
- Acted for a large NI tourist attraction providing employment law advice and GDPR advice and training.
- Advised a corporate finance business in relation to GDPR, drafting Privacy Notices, Data Retention Policy and delivered GDPR training to all staff.
- Advised a number of NI schools on Data protection policies and issues with particular reference to children.
- Provided Data Protection Consultancy Services to a large public sector organisation, advised on data breaches and notification to the ICO, handling Data Subject Access Requests and advised on data sharing agreements and data retention.
Market Recommendations
"She has an excellent grasp of current employment issues and provides detailed, comprehensive and pragmatic advice." (Chambers 2022)
"Aisling has a breadth of knowledge - she is really effective and pragmatic to deal with." (Chambers 2022)
"Aisling Byrne is a very proactive and responsive lawyer with a commanding knowledge of employment law matters. She is a reassuring sounding board for any employment-related issue". (Legal 500 2021)
Professional activities
Employment Lawyers Group Northern Ireland – Treasurer
Employment Law Association UK – NI Steering Committee
Employment Law Association of Ireland – NI Committee member
International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) – member
Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce – Council member
Education
- Trinity College Dublin – LLB
- Queens University Belfast – LLM in Discrimination law
- Queens University Belfast – Mediation qualification
- International Association of Privacy Professionals – Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe (CIPP/E)
Aisling Byrne
Partner, Employment
A&L Goodbody Northern Ireland LLP