He has been involved in a number of highpro"le defence cases, including an appeal last year by Brian Meehan against his conviction for the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin 10 years ago. The Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed the attempted appeal after hearing legal argument over two days from Gageby and State counsel.

In February, Gageby was appointed by former minister for justice Michael McDowell to examine the "le in relation to the death of murdered infant Noleen Murphy to see if the case warrants a further enquiry. This followed an inquest verdict that Cynthia Owen was the mother of the baby girl found stabbed to death in Dun Laoghaire in 1973. Gageby will advise the minister for justice Brian Lenihan on 1 October whether the death warrants a renewed investigation.

ANNE ROWLAND Defence junior counsel Rowland quali"ed as a junior counsel in 2000 and her areas of practice include criminal and personal injury and tort law.

She was previously a criminal defence solicitor. Last year, she defended a nurse who was convicted by a jury of assaulting two elderly patients at Naas general hospital and of poisoning one of them.

Last year her husband Raymond Dooley, the chief executive of the Children's Rights Alliance and former top aide to Congressman Joseph Kennedy, died of pancreatic cancer at age 54.

DENIS VAUGHAN BUCKLEY Prosecution senior counsel Buckley quali"ed as a junior counsel in 1965 and progressed to senior counsel in 1987. He was prosecuting counsel in the case against former Mercy nun Nora Wall, who was found guilty of raping a 10-year-old girl only to have her conviction dramatically quashed in 1999 by the Court of Criminal Appeal. The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) found that Wall and Paul 'Pablo' McCabe were entitled to be presumed innocent of all charges brought against them. In a statement read by Buckley the DPP said he "very much regrets the errors which occurred in relation to the handling of this case by the prosecution". Following her acquittal, Wall caught up with Buckley to shake his hand despite the fact that as prosecuting barrister, he had presented the State's "awed case against her. In 2001, Buckley was the prosecution counsel in a case where a jury found Louth man Michael Murphy (42) guilty of the murder of a young German woman.

DAMIEN MCGINN Prosecution junior counsel McGinn quali"ed as a junior counsel in 1997.

In his polished British tones, he summed up the prosecution case against O'Reilly to the jury before they were charged to deliberate.

His colleague and SC Buckley opened the case and because of a "division of labour" it fell to McGinn to close it. His lengthy submission to the jury was described afterwards as a master class in the art of legal persuasion. Ali Bracken