About

Anne-Marie Dempsey, senior legal counsel and company secretary at Horizon, began her career with Mathesons in private practice. After a two-and-a-half-year stint on secondment at the Houses of the Oireachtas (Irish parliament), she became the first Irish in-house counsel at pharmaceutical company, Shire, based in Dublin, in 2007. Following eight years with Shire, she joined Horizon as the first non US in-house counsel in May 2015. Almost four years later, she is now senior counsel and company secretary. Working with a small team, and as the only European lawyer for the first couple of years, gave Dempsey the opportunity to work extremely closely and collaboratively on cross-functional, multi-jurisdictional teams as an integral part of the business requiring her to be dynamic, quick-thinking and commercial-minded. Dempsey worked on Horizon’s the acquisition of River Vision and the subsequent development of Teprotumumab, describing it as ‘massively rewarding to be involved in transactional deal, then working to see the antibody through its development stages and onwards towards preparing to launch as the only product in its area to treat a previously unmet patient need’. She has worked to ensure that legal was involved from the start of every transaction, issue or challenge that arises, by growing working relationships and becoming a trusted business partner across all functions. Being invited to cross-functional meetings as well as team meetings allows her to provide more nuanced advice. A second lawyer joined the team in 2017 to support the company’s rapid growth and the number of employees in the Dublin office has increased from 20 when she joined in May 2015, to nearly 80 today. A year ago Dempsey took over the role of company secretary, which was previously held by the Dublin site lead, which has enabled her to streamline the role as it became part of the legal team. Since joining Horizon, she has worked on precedent documents and standardising minutes, to develop a house style to ensure consistency. Last year she was appointed as the Irish representative of Horizon’s inclusion council, which leads the company’s inclusion initiatives. In the words of a nominator, ‘Anne-Marie Dempsey offers a masterclass in successfully combining exceptional technical knowledge with forward-thinking cognisance of organisational needs, making her and the wider legal team well-placed to produce outstanding results. She is a natural leader and has excellent communication and business management skills, continuously ensuring that all areas of the business are briefed and upskilled on all relevant legal and industry practice developments’.