About

‘In terms of challenges, it’s about being able to deal with the issues which come across your desk – for example crisis management’, Padraic Roche says. ‘As head of legal you need to display a calming influence, so your CEO can see you can take charge’. Roche has advanced rapidly since he took up his first in-house role at Xilinx three years ago. Appointed global pension firm Mercer’s legal head in 2014, he moved to his current role as Malin Corporation’s GC less than a year later. ‘Being GC of a public company is something I’ve always aspired to’, Roche says on the move. ‘It means working with a highly skilled management team and a very strong board of directors and chairman. Life sciences is a very exciting industry and the company holds multiple investments in early stage companies, so the major focus is on M&A activities’. Roche has always been motivated by an interest in business, he explains, and it was a desire to get closer to the deals, which prompted his move in-house. Like many others, he feels the role of corporate counsel has significantly evolved in Ireland in recent times. ‘Over the last 10 to 15 years, I believe that growth in in-house legal departments in Ireland has been driven forward by US companies. Given the amount of US companies setting up in Ireland, their ethos is going to trickle down’. In his view, law firms need to think more about how they communicate with clients. ‘We need sharp, snappy answers. We don’t need deep analysis, we just need advice and we want it to be right’.