Colm McGrath read law at Corpus Christi College Cambridge continuing on to postgraduate studies towards a PhD. His doctoral thesis, supervised by Profs John Bell and David Ibbetson, studies the Development of the Role of Fault in Medical Negligence in Germany and England: 1850-2000, and forms part of a wider project on European Legal Development funded by the AHRC and based at Cambridge.
 

Whilst a doctoral candidate in Cambridge he taught on the Comparative Law, European Legal History and Roman law courses. From March 2009 he began a Research Assistantship at the Institute for European Tort Law in Vienna under Prof Ken Oliphant. In 2011 he took over as Co-General Editor of the long-running Journal of Professional Negligence. In 2012 he joined the scientific staff of the European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law under Prof Helmut Koziol and took up a post as a University Assistant at the University of Graz where he lectures in comparative private law, common law and healthcare law. In 2013, retaining his post at Graz, he rejoined the Institute for European Tort Law
 

His main research interests are the relationship between law and society, the influence of historical structures on modern law in Europe, the comparative analysis of European private law and the nature of professional liability.