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In the Business Plus Commercial Law Firm Survey 2024, Managing Partner Michael Lavelle outlines the firm’s recent growth and strategic focus on niche areas, while assessing the impact of global uncertainty and the emerging duopoly in the Irish banking sector.
Activity
“Last year was a strong year for the firm with significant growth in fee income. Commercial Litigation, Restructuring & Insolvency and Corporate & Commercial work continues to grow and we had a considerable number of very interesting cases, including shareholder disputes, private litigation and commercial transactions. We have also seen a notable increase in Employment activity in advising on redundancies, unfair dismissals and protected disclosures.”
“We continue to invest heavily in technology and recently upgraded all our IT systems.”
“There is no shortage of work in Ireland for lawyers at present. There remains, however, a shortage of lawyers with appropriate expertise to do certain work. We have therefore been concentrating on niche work in which the firm is established and recognised as experts in specialist practice areas. We continue to recruit, and it remains highly important to ensure that all our lawyers are like-minded, giving direct and practical advice to our clients.”
Outlook
“It has been many years since there has been such uncertainty in world politics, with the invasion of Ukraine, the invasion of Gaza and uncertainties in the British political system post-Brexit together with an America which has become divided between its two political parties.”
“Against that background, the optimism which existed before the Ukrainian invasion has been replaced by a more conservative approach by our clients. It is very much business as usual but, taking more adventurous decisions such as expanding a business, particularly abroad, seem to be more on hold”.
“There remains a lack of bank finance available in the market, with the banking system becoming a duopoly between AIB and Bank of Ireland as a result of other lenders leaving the market, partly as a result of increased regulation and criticism of lenders in the Irish market. There has been a growth in smaller lenders who are charging higher interest rates and the lack of finance at more normal lending rates is causing problems for clients”.
Business Plus Law Firm Survey 2024
Business Plus Magazine’s annual survey, the Law Firms Who’s Who, includes insights from the managing partners of Ireland’s leading commercial law firms.