Under Irish law, the responsibility to manage the business and affairs of a company is entrusted to its directors. This legal relationship can, in certain circumstances, expose directors to personal legal risk. In this briefing, we review a number of key UK and Irish decisions from the past year, each relevant to the potential personal liability, restriction, or disqualification of directors in Ireland.

The High Court’s decision in Globoforce Group Plc, trading as Workhuman v Luxembourg Investment Company 276 SARL & Others [2026] IEHC 397 clarifies the Irish law position with regard to the so-called ‘shareholder rule’, confirming that a company may assert legal advice privilege against its own shareholders.