Leo Flynn

Principal Legal Adviser, Legal Service, European Commission at European Commission

Speaker

Leo Flynn, a graduate of the National University of Ireland and of Cambridge University, joined the Legal Service of the European Commission in 2002, where he works as a Principal Legal Adviser. He was part of the State aid team of the Legal Service from 2008 to 2016 and became head of that team in 2021. He has acted as an Agent for the Commission in some 450 court cases, more than half of which involved State aid issues including the Apple litigation, many of the challenges to aid authorised in the COVID-19 pandemic, and multiple cases involving State aid to banks during the financial crisis.

Before joining the Commission, he had been a Legal Secretary at the Court of Justice for five years. From 1992 to 1997, he lectured at King’s College, London. He is currently a Visiting Professor at King’s and remains a member of its Centre for European Law. In 2022, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Lund University for his academic work in the field of State aid law.