Clara is a Dublin based, Irish solicitor and internationally accredited Workplace Investigator from the Association of Workplace Investigators (AWI) in California. AWI is an association dedicated to enhancing knowledge and skills in high quality and impartial workplace investigations
Clara qualified as a solicitor in Ireland in 2000. After a number of years as a litigation lawyer in the early part of her career, she moved to Melbourne, Australia where she was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 2007. Practising law in Australia, it soon became apparent that mediation was a more popular form of dispute resolution than in Ireland, at that time. This led Clara to a key juncture in her career. Interviewing witnesses, taking depositions and conducting mediations became the entire focus of her work during this chapter. This was expertise that she later realised was an essential skillset for her practice as a workplace investigator. Completing a further programme on advocacy skills in employment law at the Law Society of Ireland and practising with the team of employment lawyers at Mason Hayes and Curran in Dublin would be the final juncture before fully honing her skills as a workplace investigator. Having completed further studies in California in 2018 at the Association of Workplace Investigators (AWI) Training Institute, she became passionate about improving the quality of impartial workplace investigations in Ireland. In 2019, she founded Clara O’Sullivan Workplace Investigations (COSWI) in Dublin where she now lives.