Paul Maguire (judge)

Sir Paul Richard Maguire (The Hon. Mr. Justice Maguire, born 1952) is a High Court Judge in Northern Ireland. Prior to that he was a barrister and a politician.

Maguire was called to the Bar in 1978 and became Queen’s Counsel in 2006.He lectured at Queen’s University, Belfast, and served as a part-time Chairman of the Employment Tribunals.

Maguire unsuccessfully stood for election to Belfast City Council for the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland in 1981.^[1] He was then elected at the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1982 for North Belfast.^[2]

He stood for the Alliance party in the equivalent Westminster constituency of North Belfast at the 1983 general election, taking 9.1% of the vote, then again at the Belfast North by-election, 1986, when he increased his vote share to 16.7%.^[3]

In the mid-1980s, Maguire left politics and focused on his legal career, rising to become Queen's Counsel by the 2000s,^[4] and representing the Government in a number of high-profile cases.^[5]

In 2010, he was appointed to head an inquiry into Peter Robinson's knowledge of his wife's improper financial affairs.^[4] He was a member of the human rights advisory committee of the Bar Council.^[5] In 2012, he was named a judge of the High Court of Northern Ireland.At his High Court swearing in ceremony in May 2012 the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Declan Morgan, said that Mr. Justice Maguire had a distinguished career at the Bar and as senior Crown Counsel and that he would be “ an invaluable and honourable addition to our High Court bench” . He was knighted in July 2012.

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