Paul Maguire (judge)

Sir Paul Richard Maguire (born 10 November 1952), styled The Hon. Mr. Justice Maguire, is a High Court Judge in Northern Ireland. Prior to that he was a barrister and a politician.

Maguire was called to the Bar in 1978 and became Queen’s Counsel in 2006. He lectured at Queen’s University, Belfast, and served as a part-time Chairman of the Employment Tribunals.

Maguire unsuccessfully stood for election to Belfast City Council for the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland in 1981.[1] He was then elected at the 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly election for North Belfast.[2]

He stood for the Alliance party in the equivalent Westminster constituency of North Belfast at the 1983 general election, taking 9.1% of the vote, then again at the Belfast North by-election in 1986, when he increased his vote share to 16.7%.[3]

In the mid-1980s, Maguire left politics and focused on his legal career, rising to become Queen's Counsel in 2006,[4] and representing the Government in a number of high-profile cases.[5]

In 2010, he was appointed to head an inquiry into Peter Robinson's knowledge of his wife's improper financial affairs.[4] He was a member of the human rights advisory committee of the Bar Council.[5]

In 2012, he was named a judge of the High Court of Northern Ireland.At his High Court swearing in ceremony in May 2012 the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Declan Morgan, said that Mr. Justice Maguire had a distinguished career at the Bar and as senior Crown Counsel and that he would be " an invaluable and honourable addition to our High Court bench" . He was knighted in the 2013 Special Honours.[6]

In January 2021, he was elevated to the Court of Appeal, which is the highest court in Northern Ireland.[7]