About

Yvonne Czajkowski acts as senior legal counsel within the contracts and legal office at Trinity College Dublin. She was the first solicitor hired in this office four years ago and is currently the only solicitor in a team of 11 members. In this role, Czajkowski has gained exceptional experience providing tailored legal advice in numerous areas including, but not limited to, commercial and research contracts, IP and governance. She also provides advice in respect of employment law within the office, as well as company secretarial advice pertaining to spin out companies and related shareholder agreements. Czajkowski has advised on property leases entered into by Trinity College Dublin as well as agreements pertaining to accessing facilities and commercial space. She highlights that, ‘a large portion of my advice relates to regulatory matters such as the implementation of GDPR, data protection agreements and the applicability and adherence to the state aid regulations. I am responsible for the provision of legal training to the staff within the office as well as managing several staff members, I am the focal point of contact for all legal and contractual queries in the office’. Prior to joining Trinity College Dublin, Czajkowski gained exceptional experience in her role within Greyhound Recycling and Recovery, successfully establishing and developing the legal services office where she was employed as the first and only solicitor for the company. Additionally, she acted as data protection officer for the company including successfully representing it at District Court level regarding data protection matters. She also represented Greyhound Recycling and Recovery at a crucial point in its history throughout a strike which was, and still is, Ireland’s largest strike action to date. While acting as senior legal counsel at Trinity College Dublin, Czajkowski negotiated the governance and management structure for the Global Brain Health Institute – €177m collaboration between TCD and UCSF funded by Atlantic Philanthropies, the largest single philanthropic donation in Irish history. She is responsible for managing the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) portfolio of research contracts with a combined value of several hundred million euros across multiple disciplinary areas. Responsible for negotiating the amended SFI Terms and Conditions in 2017 as led the negotiation on behalf of all other HEIs in respect of various state aid questionnaires furnished by SFI in respect of research infrastructure and grants awarded to HEIs in 2017. She advised on two milestone EU consortia from the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, Raw Materials and Health Knowledge and Innovation Communities. This involved advising on multi-jurisdictional corporate governance matters in relation to legal structures. Additionally she contributed to a paper for League of European Research Universities which was put to the European Commission on their proposal for amendments to the 2009 EU Regulation governing Export Control and Dual Use items and represented TCD in discussions on the same with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation in 2018 and 2019.