Síofra O’Leary (born 20 September 1968) is an Irish lawyer and judge who served as president of the European Court of Human Rights from November 2022 to July 2024 and as a judge of the European Court of Human Rights since July 2015.
[2][3][4] Starting in 1996 for three years, O'Leary held the position of Référendaire (consultant) at the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg.
During her time at the Court of Justice, O'Leary also was a visiting fellow at University College Dublin's faculty of law from 1999 to 2004.
Her lectures address practitioners, government agencies and academics on fundamental rights, EU law and European Court of Justice practice and procedure.
[5] On 19 September 2022, she was elected president of the court and became the first woman to hold that position when[6] she took up office on 1 November 2022 replacing Róbert Ragnar Spanó who is Icelandic.