Cliona Kelly

Dr Cliona Kelly is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the Law School, as well as the Chair of the Law Taught Programmes Board.

Cliona is a graduate of University College Dublin, where she graduated top of her class with a first class honours degree. She also completed her PhD, funded by the Irish Research Counil for Humanities and Social Sciences, in University College Dublin. Cliona also has a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education from the National University of Ireland, Galway. Before returning to UCD Cliona was a lecturer in law at the National University of Ireland, Galway and Senior Lecturer in Cardiff University, Wales. She has also lectured in Trinity College Dublin (2006 - 2007) and worked in the Irish Law Reform Commission where she wrote the Report on Privity of Contract and Third Party Rights. Cliona joined the Sutherland School of Law in September 2015.

Cliona teaches on Undergraduate Modules in Legal and Professional Skills, Patent Law and Trademarks, Consumer Law, Applied Legal Skills and Business Law (as part of the Business Diploma with the Quinn Business School) and the Postgraduate module in Patent Law. She has acted as an External Examiner at the University of Portsmouth and Bangor Law School, and Queen Mary University, London. In 2021/22 Cliona lead a staff-student collaborative research project into Academic Advising in the School of law, with the aim of improving the Academic advisory programme. In 2021 Cliona won a UCD Values in Action Award for her work in promoting consent education in the School of law, incorporating consent education as a key part of the law programme.

Cliona's main research area is in contract and consumer law. In 2021 she published a monograph on Contract Law in Ireland , published by Wolters Kluwer as part of the peer reviewed International Encyclopedia of Laws series. In 2021, Cliona was invited by the Attorney General to provide expert advice on the transposition of European Consumer law Directives and the reform of Irish consumer law in the Consumer Rights Bill 2022. In 2011 she was appointed as Internal Examiner in Contract Law for the Law Society of Ireland, a statutory position under the Solicitors Acts 1954 - 1994.