Appointed by President Michael D Higgins, Ms Justice Caroline Costello has stepped into the role of the president of the Court of Appeal, the second most prestigious judicial office in the country. This promotion comes as a consequence of the Government’s decision in the summer to nominate Ms Costello, and followed the retirement of Mr Justice George Birmingham last month.
Back in 1982, Ms Justice Costello completed her BA in History and Classics from University College Dublin and went on to further her legal education at the University of Oxford and the King’s Inns. Since becoming a barrister in 1988, she developed a substantial practice primarily in the areas of banking, commercial and insolvency law.
Before her tenure in the Appeal Court from 2018, she was a High Court judge, a judicial post she assumed in 2014. Some of the high-profile cases she presided over during this time included bankruptcy procedures against businessman Sean Dunne.
When dealing with complex litigation against Facebook, instigated by complaints to the Irish Data Protection Commissioner from Max Schrems – an Austrian attorney and data privacy advocate concerning EU-US data transfers – she presided over the hearings. She referred crucial aspects of this case to the Court of Justice of the EU which led to an impactful ruling related to privacy rights.
Her legal lineage traces back to her father Declan Costello, a former attorney general and president of the High Court, and her grandfather, the prior Fine Gael Taoiseach John A Costello.