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The School of Law was delighted to welcome Prof Mark Bell, Regius Professor of Laws, Head of the Law School at Trinity College Dublin to deliver a public lecture on ‘Mental Health and Employment: the Role of Disability Discrimination Law’ on 11 February 2020.

The event took place at Law Society House and was opened by Rowan White, President of the Law Society. Mark lectured on the topic 'Mental Health and Employment: the Role of Disability Discrimination Law'. The lecture was attended by 40-50 students, practitioners and public sector members, including from the Equality Commission. Mark’s lecture addressed disability discrimination in Ireland, some commonalities and differences with the approach to discrimination in Britain and Northern Ireland, including the EU background, and lessons from the Irish case law around reasonable adjustment, the definition of disability, the role of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Mark Bell is Head of the School of Law; Regius Professor of Laws (a Chair founded in 1668); and a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. Prior to his appointment at Trinity, he was a professor at the School of Law, University of Leicester, where he was also Head of the School of Law (2011-2014). Mark has published regularly on Anti-Discrimination Law and Employment Law, particularly in relation to EU Law. He is co-editor of International and European Labour Law: A Commentary (Nomos 2018). Mark is a member of the Board of Directors of the Irish Centre for European Law and the Advisory Board of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law. In 2015, he was a Senior Expert on Disability for the European Commission's Network of Legal Experts in Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination. Since 2010, he worked with the International Labour Organisation on several projects and played a key role in producing a 2016 guide for employers on promoting diversity through workplace adjustments. Mark is a graduate of the School of Law, Ulster.

Mark is seen here with Prof Eugene McNamee (Head of School) and Dr Esther McGuinness (co-director of the Ulster Law Clinic and one of the organisers of this event with Prof Rory O’Connell).