The Chancellery
About Us
The Chancellery is a central co-ordinating Directorate, supporting decision making in the University by ensuring an integrated approach to governance, compliance and central administration.
What we do
The Chancellery has three key areas with responsibility for the provision of legal advice, information compliance oversight and the co-ordination of university governance. It is also responsible for central administration, providing support to Senate, the Vice-Chancellor and the senior leadership team on a range of activity and institutional projects.
General Counsel and Director of Legal Services
Clare Downey is General Counsel and Director of Legal Services at Queen’s University Belfast, where she leads the Chancellery Directorate. In this role, she provides strategic legal oversight across the university, ensuring consistency in legal compliance, information governance, risk management, and both commercial and corporate law.
With over 15 years of legal experience in Northern Ireland, Clare has held senior roles in both private practice and in-house legal teams. Prior to joining Queen’s, she served as Group Legal Counsel for Tayto Group Limited and as Senior Company Lawyer for Translink, offering commercially focused legal advice at executive level and across diverse business sectors.
Areas
Chancellery Operations
Responsible for co-ordination of University Governance, provision of professional support to senior leadership team and management of range of institutional projects:
Information Compliance Unit
Responsible for overseeing University compliance with Freedom of Information, Data Protection legislation and best practice in information governance:
Legal Services
Responsible for looking after case management legal advice as well as oversight of the University’s safeguarding arrangements for children and adults at risk:
Meet the Team
Chancellery Operations
| Claire Gilchrist | Chief of Staff | |
| Claire Lewis | Strategic Operations Manager | |
| Catherine Pollitt | Strategic Operations Officer | |
| Julie Carse | Governance and Senate Operations | |
| Fiona Lavery | Governance Co-ordinator | |
| Louise McGrath | Executive Personal Assistant to the President and Vice-Chancellor | |
| Rebecca Magee | Executive Assistant to Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor | |
| Pauline Allen | Office Manager and Executive Assistant to Head of Chancellery Operations | |
| Elaine Buller | Executive Assistant to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement) | |
| Karen Hood | Executive Secretary to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) | |
| Maureen Kelly | Executive Secretary to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education and Students) | |
| Lindsay Martin | Executive Support Secretary to the Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Sustainability and Strategic Projects) |