Overview
At best, the Irish economy in 2010 could be described as tumultuous, even after the Government secured a €85bn bailout from the European Union following a protracted and acrimonious debate. While public and political unrest continued to dominate the headlines, there has been a sensible handling of the financial crisis, which saw the country plunge further into recession than most of its eurozone counterparts. The International Monetary Fund is predicting that Ireland will achieve 2.3% GDP growth by the end of 2011 having crept to within a whisker of positive growth by the end of 2010.
Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) continues to go through the arduous process of putting the banking sector back onto an even keel. 2010 saw the third and final legal panel created, with 43 Irish and UK firms appointed to oversee the restructuring and refinancing of the banks’ assets. Much of the work coming in and out of NAMA will keep banking and regulatory teams working hard for years to come; with an expected €2.6bn to be spent on professional advice over the next decade firms will have to make the most of this opportunity to keep themselves busy: a small mercy considering that transactional activity in the rest of the sector is at something of a crossroads, with the bulk of the work being driven by distressed assets and restructurings.
Despite the transparency issues in terms of law firm financials, it is clear that firms have struggled to cope with the dramatic drop-off in transactional work. Those practices that have built their business around a booming real estate sector are now having to seriously question their strategy. Rumours continue to circulate about widespread redundancy and restructurings at firms, and the constraints that a recession puts on a business model have kept big-name hiring to a minimum. There has, however, been a flourish of interest from international firms looking to take advantage of the growing investment funds sector in Dublin.
Dechert LLP made a grand entrance into the market with the hire of the highly rated Declan O’Sullivan from William Fry, with its focus on investment funds, investment managers and other fund service providers. Leading offshore firm Walkers followed suit in October with an office that will concentrate on investment funds, asset finance, structured finance and corporate administration, headed up by Vicki Hazelden. The firm took two high-profile partners from Matheson Ormsby Prentice in Garry Ferguson and Ken Rush, and is expected to significantly add to that over the coming year. Simmons & Simmons announced its intentions to launch in the Irish capital too, but is yet to make a move in terms of hires or office space.
Investment has not been the sole preserve of new entrants, however; Maples and Calder continued its push into the market with the hire of finance specialist Liam Carney from Arthur Cox and Paul Dobbyn from the Irish Bar as partners.
The leading Irish firms kept a lower profile in the hiring market, although A&L Goodbody did pick up technology partner Mark Rasdale from Matheson Ormsby Prentice. At the end of 2009 John Gulliver joined Mason Hayes+Curran in a bid to reshape that practice.