James MacGuill is the new President of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE).
Following his election by the CCBE Plenary Session on 10 December 2021, James MacGuill (Ireland) is leading the CCBE since 1 January 2022.
James MacGuill is a practising solicitor in Ireland and Managing Partner at MacGuill and Company, a practice of five solicitors. He was admitted to the Roll of Solicitors in 1986 and was appointed a Notary Public in 1996. He has been in private practice ever since as a litigator with an emphasis on public law, especially criminal law and human rights. In 2020 he was one of the first Irish Solicitors to be granted the title Senior Counsel by the Irish Government. He has been actively involved in the Law Society of Ireland, has chaired many of its committees and served as President of the Law Society in 2007-2008. He joined the CCBE in 2008 and was Head of the Irish Delegation to the CCBE twice between 2012 and 2018. He also chaired the CCBE Criminal Law Committee from 2013 during 6 years before joining the CCBE Presidency in 2019.
His presidency will be supported by Panagiotis Perakis (Greece) as 1st Vice-President, Pierre-Dominique Schupp (Switzerland) as 2nd Vice-President, and Thierry Wickers (France) as 3rd Vice-President.
