David Barniville


David Barniville is an Irish lawyer who is currently a Judge of the High Court. He formerly practiced as a barrister and was the chair of the Bar Council of Ireland.

Education

He attended secondary school at Blackrock College. He studied for a BCL degree at University College Dublin, graduating in 1988. He completed his studies at the King's Inns.

Legal career

Barniville was called to the Bar in July 1990 and became a Senior Counsel in October 2006. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2016. He is a Bencher of the King's Inns and of Middle Temple.
His practice as a barrister consisted of commercial law and constitutional and administrative law. He was also an Accredited Mediator with a special interest in arbitration. He appeared with Donal O'Donnell for Michael Lowry at the Moriarty Tribunal and was counsel for the Beef Tribunal. He represented the Minister for Finance in the High Court on the nationalisation of Allied Irish Banks in December 2010, and again on the recapitalisation of Irish Life & Permanent.
He appeared regularly in the European Court of Justice representing Ireland.
He was the chairman of the Bar Council of Ireland between 2014 and 2016. He has also been a member of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority, the board of the Courts Service and of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board and the Legal Aid Board. In 2016, the Minister for Justice and Equality Frances Fitzgerald sought clarifications from the Bar Council on the procedure of Barniville's appointment to the Legal Services Regulatory Authority. The Department of Justice and Equality was ultimately satisfied with the selection process.
He is an adjunct professor of law at the University of Limerick.

Judicial career

He was appointed a Judge of the High Court in December 2017. He has been the court's designated arbitration judge since June 2018. As of 2020, he is the Judge in Charge of the Commercial List.
In the High Court, he has presided over cases on matters including insolvency law, injunctions, defamation law, and judicial review. He was previously the Judge in Charge of the Strategic Infrastructure List, hearing appeals of An Bord Pleanála decisions, including for developments at Saint Anne's Park and Cherrywood, Dublin.
He was appointed the chairperson of the Referendum Commission in September 2010 for the purpose of a referendum on Nonresident voting at Irish presidential elections.

Other appointments

He currently acts as a governor of the National Maternity Hospital, Dublin and is the chair of Irish Rule of Law International.