Alan is a graduate of University College Cork (BCL, LLM, PhD), University College Dublin (Dip. Emp) and the Law Society of Ireland (Solicitor, 2012). In 2017, Alan completed a PhD in the School of Law at University College Cork in the area of access to justice for victims of crime with intellectual disabilities. In pursuit of his studies, Alan was awarded a Government of Ireland PhD scholarship from the Irish Research Council as well as a Faculty of Law PhD Scholarship from University College Cork. Alan's research has been widely published in national and international journals including, The International Journal of Law and Psychiatry; Policing: An International Journal; The International Journal of Evidence and Proof; Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly and The Irish Judicial Studies Journal. He has has acted as an Expert Advisor to the Minister for Justice, Garda Commissioner, the Strategic Human Rights Advisory Committee, the European Commission, the High Level Taskforce on Mental Illness, RCNI, and the Department of Justice and he has provided expert analysis on the treatment of vulnerable witnesses for national media outlets in Ireland including Drivetime (RTÉ Radio 1), Newstalk FM and The Irish Examiner. Alan 

In 2021 Alan was appointed by the Department of Justice to design, deliver and evaluate Ireland s first training and accreditation programme for Registered Intermediaries. Alan has also been appointed, as principal investigator, to a series of outstanding policy and procedural reform projects within An Garda Síochána. These projects which are being conducted with the Human Rights Department of An Garda Síochána include:
 

Alan is a qualified solicitor and, subsequent to commencing his doctoral research, practiced for a number of years with Arthur Cox solicitors in Dublin.  In 2013 Alan was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights at University College Cork and, more recently, in 2018 he was elected to the Board of Directors for the Irish Criminal Justice and Disability Network. Alan is a professional member of The Law Society of Ireland and is also a member of the Society of Legal Scholars and the Socio-Legal Studies Association. In 2015 Alan was an Academic Visitor at the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford (January - March 2015). Alan was appointed in 2018 to the editorial board for the Irish Judicial Studies Journal.