A&L Goodbody Northern Ireland LLP

Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Partner

Ciaran O'Shiel is a partner in A&L Goodbody’s Commercial Litigation department in Belfast. He specialises in intellectual property, media and technology disputes advising domestic and international clients on defamation, privacy, data protection and content related matters.

Ciaran has acted for technology and media companies in the High Court and Court of Appeal and has an extensive intellectual property practice having represented clients in patent, copyright, breach of confidence, trademark infringement and passing off cases.

His experience also includes advising private and public organisations on business critical issues such as reputation management, regulatory risk and responding to data security incidents.

Experience Advising: Publishers, broadcasters and intermediaries across a range of issues including applications for injunctive relief, reporting restrictions, production orders, applications for Norwich Pharmacal relief and jurisdiction challenges. A public limited company and its subsidiaries in relation to group action proceedings involving thousands of data protection and privacy claims following a highly sophisticated cyber-security attack. An international news organisation in the successful defence of a privacy and data protection based injunction before the High Court and Court of Appeal. A multinational technology company in relation to High Court proceedings for online defamation and breach of data protection legislation involving safe harbour defences under the E-Commerce Directive. A luxury goods brand owner in relation to trademark infringement and passing off proceedings in the Commercial Court arising from the importation of counterfeit goods. Other recent experience includes advising on cyber incident response, regulatory investigations and complex information access requests under GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Ciaran is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals and a contributor to the London Media Law Blog, Inforrm.

Solicitor, Law Society of Northern Ireland LLM, Law & International Commerce, Queens University Belfast LLB, Law, Queens University Belfast