Fiona Donnelly, the Associate Director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies at Queen’s University, Belfast, has been a legal practitioner since 1985.

The Institute is the primary training organisation for solicitors and barristers in Northern Ireland. Fiona designs, teaches and examines courses in litigation and advocacy. She is also the Head of Quality and is responsible for setting and maintaining standards of excellence in teaching and assessment.

In 2006, Fiona was appointed by the Lord Chancellor to be a Commissioner on the Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission. She chairs the Registration Working Group and the Civil Fees Working Group of the Legal Services Commission. She also chairs the Children Order Panel Accreditation Board of the Law Society of Northern Ireland. Fiona is a regular contributor to BBC news and documentary programmes.

As a key member of the Advocacy Working Party, she and Tony Caher created an advocacy training course which has gained statutory recognition as the basis of qualification for Solicitor Advocates in Northern Ireland. Fiona is now Chair of the Advocacy Working Party.

Fiona is regularly invited to teach in Boston on the National Institute for Trial Advocacy's New England Programme. She has taught arbitration advocacy in Vienna and was invited to be an Assistant Team Leader on NITA's National Session in Boulder, Colorado.

For several years, she has been a member of the faculty on the Republic of Ireland and Scottish Advocacy courses and has been responsible for the development of an inter-jurisdictional course, which takes place annually. Fiona has also trained public bodies including the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.

She heads the Advocacy group of the Law Society of Northern Ireland and each year conducts a week-long training course in Belfast which leads to Higher Rights of Audience. She is a regular advocacy trainer for the Law Society in Dublin.

Fiona has taught arbitration advocacy for Linklaters in Vienna and Bär and Karrer in Zurich.