Team size: 17

What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past 12 months?

EirGrid is at the center of a major transformation of Ireland’s electricity system, driven by national and European climate targets and the need for cleaner more sustainable energy. As a regulated utility, EirGrid operates in a complex and ever evolving stakeholder environment.

The EirGrid in-house Legal team is responsible for the delivery of legal services to the EirGrid Group. EirGrid, as the transmission system operator, plans, develops and operates the electricity transmission grid. As the market operator, EirGrid operates the all-island single electricity market jointly with its equivalent in Northern Ireland. EirGrid also operates two high voltage connections between Ireland and Great Britain, the Greenlink interconnector and the East West Interconnector, the latter, which is owned by its subsidiary, EirGrid Interconnector DAC. The Legal team is the first point of contact for the business, and the team advises on a wide range of complex commercial, corporate, regulatory, property and planning matters including almost 200 active key infrastructure projects.

EirGrid, together with its French equivalent, RTE, is developing the Celtic Interconnector project, a high voltage electrical connection between Ireland and France which is currently in the construction phase. The legal team has managed and supported on all legal aspects of the project including procurement,construction and development contracts, property and consenting, commercial and regulatory matters and, most recently on the market operations side, significant work is underway to re-integrate Ireland back into the European electricity markets when the interconnector goes live.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

The legal team is at the centre of a number of critical legal matters relating to EirGrid’s new role in offshore wind, including the development of a suite of contractual documents for both the connection of offshore windfarms to the grid and for the transfer of offshore grid assets to EirGrid from developers building out those assets for certain early phase projects. The legal team have also advised on the putting in place of an offshore marine surveys framework and on the successful application for a Maritime Usage Licence from the Marine Area Regulatory Authority which will allow EirGrid to have site investigation works carried out in furtherance of developing the offshore grid for the next phase of the offshore programme. Off-shore wind at this scale is a new venture for Ireland and the EirGrid legal team are critical to its delivery.

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

We have been expanding the EirGrid in-house legal team over the last few years. The business sees the benefit of having in-house counsel that have a deep understanding of the business and the complex legal and regulatory environment in which it operates, and who are readily accessible to the business. The most important attributes for our in-house counsel are an ability to collaborate with colleagues within the business and problem-solve, while also having a strong situational awareness of how decisions will impact the wider energy sector. It is important for the EirGrid legal team to have a diverse set of competencies and expertise given the wide range of legal issues we advise on. Rather than being seen as a blocker, having these attributes demonstrate a clear desire to work through problems with the business to get to desired and practical outcomes which are legally robust.