About

Consisting of 29 solicitors and 19 legal executives and secretaries, the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) in-house legal team is known in Ireland for the depth and breadth of expertise of its staff. The team support ESB’s workforce of more than 7,000 employees, and is the first point of call for all legal issues arising in the company’s domestic and international operations in generation, supply and transmission of electricity and in its energy consulting business. During the past year, a substantial portion of the business became subject to Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation, requiring legal advice not only on the scope of the legislation and the obligations imposed by it, but also on the establishment of processes and procedures to handle FOI requests, the training of staff and the processing of requests as they were received. Alan Daly, group head of legal, explains how he leads a talented function that can draw on a rich pool of experience when handling any legal and compliance risk: ‘The strength of our team lies in its people, and specifically, in the diversity of training and experience of its staff. ESB’s solicitors come from varied backgrounds; some having trained in the ESB legal department itself and some having trained in private practice’. The team has consistently aimed to drive a demonstrable change in the way in which they provide their services from what was viewed as a mechanical legal service (focused on legal product) to trusted adviser (focused on good counsel). Daly believes that the team’s ‘commercial nous impacts their advice’, stating that their experience means that counsel given is most often ‘very strategic’ in nature.