Olga Shajaku

Overview

Olga is a founding partner of MS Solicitors and a Notary Public. She is an experienced advocate on a wide range of issues, such as Investor Support, Real Estate and Immigration Law, as well as Criminal Law, Family Law and Social Welfare issues.

In 2007 Olga was awarded the title “Young Businesswoman of the Year” by Image Magazine and Brown Thomas. She was also awarded the title of “Emerging Ethnic Entrepreneur” by Metro Éireann and Permanent TSB. In the same year, she received nomination in the Ernst & Young “Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year” category. In 2018 she was nominated as One of the Most Influential Women in Business by Phoenix magazine.

Olga received the title of Honorary Solicitor of Russia in 2016 and multiple certificates of gratitude from various governmental and non-governmental organisations in the Russian Federation, highlighting her contribution to the development of business diplomacy, trade and cultural links between Russia and Ireland.

Her professional achievements include:

• Successfully defended the first case in Ireland that was prosecuted under the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Offences) Act 2010;
• Instituted a variety of successful legal challenges on behalf of ethnic Russian clients from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia based upon claims of discrimination against their home countries
• Successfully regularised status of a Chinese national with permission to reside and work legally in Ireland on a full-time basis;
• Successfully challenged the State’s requirement that a Pakistani man, with his EU citizen wife, must have lived together and/or have a relationship in order for him to receive permanent residence;
• Successfully stopped the deportation of an EU national that the State was trying to remove on the basis of that EU national’s criminal record;
• Successfully obtained social welfare benefits for a homeless mother, in spite of her failing the habitual residence test; and
• Successfully forced the State to revoke a deportation order and allow a failed asylum-seeker back into the asylum application process.