About

SIRO, a startup business owned by telecoms giants ESB and Vodafone, aims to bring high speed internet service online across Ireland, especially smaller rural areas and so bridge the ‘digital gap’ that exists between these places and Dublin. Audrey O’ Sullivan, general counsel, explains that she was the ideal fit for the role when she was approached to take it on: ‘How I got here was a combination of having the right qualifications, the right experience, keeping up to date with current technology and the legal developments around this, and maintaining deep contacts and relationships among the profession’. Indeed, her prior experience with BT and WorldPay provided O’Sullivan with valuable experience in the telecoms and IT sectors respectively, as well as a number of career highlights. ‘During my time with BT’, she remembers, ‘a particular highlight was working on building a mobile network for 3 back in the early noughties, as this was a very large contract which allowed for a lot of useful learning opportunities’. Alongside this, ‘going from a very large multi-national to a startup was extremely interesting as it highlighted to me that the characteristics of working in a large company or in a small one are essentially the same; these are based around great working relationships first and foremost’. O’Sullivan was afforded the opportunity to build her own legal function at SIRO, and has taken a progressive approach that is in keeping with the culture of the business. ‘I always wanted to grow the legal team organically, as this helps to introduce savings and the knowledge base to grow. I decided to onboard external legal advisors only for niche work, and utilised alternative legal firms such as Axiom for any other work’. O’ Sullivan is very keen on the different solutions that alternative legal providers can provide a business, and looks to avoid classic fee arrangements as much as possible: ‘I do challenge external advisors in terms of cost models, and stay away from hourly rate as much as possible in order to keep legal spend low for the business’.