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Biography

Professor Deirdre Ahern is an Associate Professor in Trinity College Dublin's Law School where she is the Director of Teaching and Learning (Postgraduate). Convenor of the Technologies, Law and Society Research Group and a member of the School's Corporate Law, Governance and Capital Markets Research Group, her primary research areas are corporate law, comparative corporate law, corporate governance and commercial law as well as the emerging areas of FinTech regulation and AI. Professor Ahern is an appointed member of the European Commission's Informal Company Law Expert Group for 2020-2024. Professor Ahern's research agenda engages with the societal and legal expectations of companies and their directors including the ethical challenges presented by globalisation. She has written extensively nationally and internationally on the theoretical framework surrounding the duties of company directors. She has a track record of publishing cutting-edge transformative work in high impact, top tier national and international journals which is well cited in academic, policy, judicial and legal practice contexts. Based on a sustained research track of field-shaping work she has developed an international reputation as an expert on the law and policy relating to the duties of company directors and has broken new ground in how the discipline of corporate law and corporate governance is thought about. Her book, Directors' Duties; law and Practice (Thomson Roundhall, 2009) was shortlisted for the Kevin Boyle Prize. Professor Ahern was elected to Fellowship of Trinity College in 2012 on the basis of her contribution to scholarship and is an elected member of the Board (governing authority) of Trinity College representing the Fellows. A founding Director of the Irish Corporate Law Forum, Professor Ahern previously worked as a commercial solicitor with A&L Goodbody and KPMG and both as a researcher and principal officer with the Law Reform Commission. Professor Ahern is co-editor of the Irish Business Law Review and sits on the editorial boards of The Company Lawyer and the Journal of Business Law. She is a contributing editor to Gore-Browne on Companies. Deirdre has served as Secretary and President of the Irish Association of Law Teachers and as President of Trinity Women Graduates.

Research Tags

BOARDS OF DIRECTORS Business/Corporate Law Comparative Company Law Corporate Governance FinTech Regulation GENDER QUOTAS ON BOARDS

Research Projects

Project Title

CSRxChange: Constructing Regulatory, Reporting and Accreditation Tools for Corpoate Social Responsibility

From

2015

Summary

The Non-Financial Reporting Directive 2014/95/EU breaks new regulatory ground in requiring Member States to legislate by 6 December 2016 in relation to mandatory sustainability reporting for large companies using a 'comply or explain' model. Previously corporate social responsibility ("CSR") had been viewed as essentially voluntary by the EU for a long time and globally regulation has proved largely elusive. Nonetheless many companies have embraced CSR and have sought voluntary certification to show their engagement with sustainability. Transparent sustainability reporting provides material which enables stakeholders to engage with companies in relation to the adoption of socially responsible business practices in areas such as conditions of employment, environmental impact and human rights. Against this background, this project considers engagement with corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Ireland and reporting and regulatory challenges and pitfalls. Relevant themes to be explored will include sustainability and diversity as sound business practice, the role of voluntary accreditation schemes and appropriate sustainability reporting frameworks. The project will also focus on likely regulatory outcomes of implementation of the Directive in relation to corporate sustainability disclosures will also be examined from the perspectives of both regulator and affected companies.

Funding Agency

Irish Research Council

Programme

New Foundations

Project Type

Knowledge Exchange

Project Title

An Examination of the Shareholders' Right Directive

From

September 2009

February 2010

Summary

This project involved examining the legal and practical implications for Ireland of implementing the Shareholders' Rights Directive including issues such as proxy voting and the right of shareholders to ask questions.

Person Months

Project Title

The Legal Duties of Nominee Directors

From

October 2009

December 2009

Summary

This project focused on examining how the conflict of duties of nominee directors, based on the expectation that a nominee director would further their appointer's interests rather than those of the company, can be legally resolved.

Person Months

Representations

Details	Date
Devising and co-delivering Principles of Fiduciary Corporate Law course for the Duke-Geneva Transnational Law Institute
Co-editor of the Irish Business Law Review	2015 -
Secretary of the Irish Association of Law Teachers
Director of the Irish Corporate Law Forum http://www.iclf.ie/	2010 to date
President of the Irish Association of Law Teachers	2011-2012
Member of the Steering Committee of the Trinity Consortium on Ageing	2007 to date
Member of the Quality Committeee, TCD	From 2009
Member of the Law Society Business Law Committee	2006 to 2009
Member of the Law Reform Commission's Working Group on Vulnerable Adults and the Law	2005 to 2006
Member of the Research Ethics Committee of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland's Faculty of Public Health Medicine	2006 to 2007

Languages

Language	Skill Reading	Skill Writing	Skill Speaking
English	Fluent	Fluent	Fluent
French	Medium	Medium	Medium
Spanish	Medium	Basic	Basic

Memberships

Membership of Professional Institutions, Associations, Societies

Details	Date From	Date To
Member of the Law Society of Ireland
Member of the Society of Legal Scholars	2006 to date
Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute

Publications and other Research Outputs

Directors' Duty of Care and Harnessing the Potential for AI to Enhance Boardroom Dynamics in, editor(s)Philip Morgan and Ernest Lim , The Cambridge Handbook of Private Law and Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2021, [Ahern, Deirdre], Book Chapter, ACCEPTED

Directors - Appointment, Removal and Vacation in, editor(s)Alistair Alcock , Gore-Browne on Companies, Bristol, LexisNexis UK, 2020, [Ahern, Deirdre], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED

Management of a Company in, editor(s)Alistair Alcock , Gore-Browne on Companies, Bristol, LexisNexis UK, 2020, [Ahern, Deirdre], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED

Ahern, Deirdre, A New Vista to Transform Sustainable Investment Decisions: Mobilising New Technologies to Bridge Global Regulatory Gaps , Regulating Business in Times of Turbulence, Istanbul, 15 October 2020, 2020, Oral Presentation, ACCEPTED

Ahern. Deirdre and Jain, Tanusree, When Tokens Matters: A Critical Perspective on Tokenism and Women on Corporate Boards, Academy of Management Annual Conference, Vancouver, 7 November 2020, 2020, Oral Presentation, ACCEPTED

Ahern, Deirdre, Regulators Nurturing FinTech: Global Evolution of the Regulatory Sandbox as Opportunity-based Regulation, 2020, Notes: [European Banking Institute Working Paper Series No. 60], Working Paper, PUBLISHED URL

"Majority Rule and Minority Protections: Theoretical Frameworks and National Practice in the Shadow of the EU: The Case of Ireland" in, editor(s)A.J. Viera Gonzalez and C. Teichmann , Conflicts of Interest between Majorities and Minorities in the EU Member States Private Company Law, Spain, Thomson Reuters Aranzadi, 2019, pp117 - 169, [Deirdre Ahern], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED TARA - Full Text

Directors - Appointment, Removal and Vacation in, editor(s)Alistair Alcock , Gore-Browne on Companies, Bristol, LexisNexis UK, 2019, [Ahern, Deirdre], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED

Management of a Company in, editor(s)Alistair Alcock , Gore-Browne on Companies, Bristol, 2019, [Ahern, Deirdre], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED

Deirdre Ahern, Regulators Nurturing FinTech Innovation: Global Evolution of The Regulatory Sandbox as Opportunity-Based Regulation, Indian Journal of Law and Technology, 2019, Notes: [http://hdl.handle.net/2262/91649], Journal Article, IN_PRESS TARA - Full Text

Page 1 of 9

Ahern, Deirdre, The Future of Annual General Meetings, Virtualisation and Corporate Accountability, The Future of Annual General Meetings, Virtualisation and Corporate Accountability, University College London, 22 September, 2020, University College London, Invited Talk, APPROVED

Ahern, Deirdre, Directors' Duty of Care and Harnessing the Potential for AI to Enhance Boardroom Dynamics, Artificial Intelligence and Private Law, National University of Singapore, 27 August 2020, 2020, National University of Singapore, Invited Talk, ACCEPTED

Ahern, Deirdre, Closing Keynote: The Impact of Blockchain and DLT Technologies on Company Law, International Congress on Digitalization and DLT in Company Law, University of Zaragoza, Spain, 29-30 October 2020, 2020, Faculty of Law, University of Zaragoza, Invited Talk, ACCEPTED

Ahern, Deirdre, The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Governance of Companies, Corporate Law and Finance Summer School, Trinity College Dublin, 23 July 2019, 2019, European Law Students Association, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED

Ahern, Deirdre, Keynote: Sustainable Governance into the Future and the Impact of Artificial Intelligence, Annual Conference of the Chartered Governance Institute of the UK and Ireland, Dublin Castle, 16 May 2019, 2019, the Chartered Governance Institute of the UK and Ireland, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED

Ahern. Deirdre and Jain, Tanusree, Using Mandatory Quotas to Address Gender Imbalances In The Boardroom: Some Evidence From East And West, Hearing Women's Voices: Irish Federation of University Women Annual Conference, Trinity College Dublin, 19 October 2019, 2019, Trinity Women Graduates / Irish Federation of University Women, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED

Ahern, Deirdre, (Panel Chair) Women in Leadership , Hearing Women's Voices: Irish Federation of University Women Annual Conference, Trinity College Dublin, 19 October 2019, 2019, Trinity Women Graduates / Irish Federation of University Women, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED

Ahern, Deirdre, Regulatory Influences and Listed Companies Engagement with Diversity in their Annual Reports, Gender Diversity on Corporate Boards: Listed Companies' Self-Reporting on Diversity in their Annual Reports , The Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, 2019, Oral Presentation, PUBLISHED

Deirdre, Equal in Name: The Limits of Law, Then and Now, Me Too, Then and Now, Trinity Long Room Hub, 7 March , 2018, Trinity Long Room Hub, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED

Ahern, Deirdre, (Panellist) Culture, Diversity and Evidence from the Field, Culture, Diversity and the Way Forward for Corporate Governance in Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, 25 October 2018, 2018, Central Bank of Ireland & Trinity College Dublin, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED

Page 1 of 6

Awards and Honours

Award	Date
Directors' Duties: Law and Practice shortlisted for Kevin Boyle Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship	2011
Fellow, Trinity College Dublin	2012
Visiting Scholar, Duke University	2013
Herbert Smith Visitng Fellow, Faculty of Law, Cambridge University	2016
Highly Commended, Provost's Teaching Awards	2016

Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin

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Dr. Deirdre Ahern

Dr. Deirdre Ahern

Associate Professor (Law)

HOUSE 39, COLLEGE

dahern@tcd.ie

3531896 3018

http://people.tcd.ie/law/deirdreahern

Biography

Research Tags

Research Projects

Representations

Languages

Memberships

Membership of Professional Institutions, Associations, Societies

Publications and other Research Outputs

Publications

Awards and Honours