Pro-Chancellor Mark Orr

Mark Orr was educated at Belfast Royal Academy and commenced his undergraduate studies at Trinity in 1975, having been awarded an Entrance Exhibition in Classics. He graduated in Legal Science in 1979 and was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1980 and the Bar of Ireland in 1985. He became a Queen’s Counsel in 1996 and a Senior Counsel in 2002.

In his legal practice, Mark has specialised in the law of property, Wills, trusts and company and insolvency law and has lectured extensively on these subjects. He has written articles for legal journals and contributed to test books on land law and the law of mortgages. He has been identified in various guides to the legal profession as a leading practitioner in these areas. He was Chair of the Civil Legal Aid Appeals Panel for Northern Ireland from 2009 to 2019, is the current Chair of the Chancery Bar Association and served on the Chancery Practice Committee and the Insolvency Rules Committee. He is also a qualified mediator.

In public life, Mark was appointed by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland as a director of the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund, the charity supported by the British and Irish Governments to provide for victims of the ‘Troubles’, and served from 1999 until 2011. He has been a member of the Board of Banbridge Academy since 2006, was Chair for 6 years and is also a Governor of Belfast Royal Academy. Since 2019, he has been Chair of the Controlled [State] Schools Support Council for Northern Ireland, appointed by the Minister of Education.

Mark is a former international rugby referee and the longest-serving referee in Ireland. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Irish Rugby Football Union and is its representative on the Board of Rugby Europe.