Mr John MacMenamin was born in Dublin in 1952 and educated in Terenure College and University College Dublin, where he read history. Among his contemporaries were Mr Michael McDowell, Mr John Finlay and Mr Adrian Hardiman, now colleagues at the Bar. Their teachers included Prof Ronan Fanning and Sister Margaret MacCurtain, for whom he still holds a deep affection. "It was a wonderful department, they were wonderful teachers. They got us to educate ourselves."
He then studied law at the King's Inns and was called to the Bar in 1975. He took silk in 1991.
He has a mixed practice, but takes mainly commercial and insurance cases. His most recent high-profile case was, with Mr McDowell, representing the Sunday Independent in the De Rossa libel trial. He was also involved in the lengthy Beaumont neurosurgery case.
He successfully represented Ms Fatima Kelly, a Sudanese woman who married an Irishman in London. The validity of her marriage was contested by the Department of Justice, which sought to deny her Irish citizenship.
He has had a long association with Fine Gael, and his friends include Dr Garret FitzGerald and Mr Michael Noonan.