Noted for its expertise in high-profile and complex disputes before the Irish Courts, the ‘commercially minded’ group at Matheson LLP serves a top client roster spanning the insurance, tech, motor and environmental sectors. Co-leading the group is Julie Murphy-O’Connor, described as a ’pillar of the litigation community’, who maintains a leading reputation within the litigation space, alongside co-head Nicola Dunleavy, who draws on extensive experience in commercial disputes, including corporate, commercial, governance, aviation and financial services litigation. Karen Reynolds is a key contact for financial institutions, insurers, fund managers and financial advisers, while April McClements is highly knowledgeable in complex insurance disputes. Michael Byrne is well versed in TMT litigation, Deirdre Crowley is a go-to for contentious and non-contentious digital economy related disputes, and Angela Brennan specialises in claims in the banking, private equity and insurance sectors. Aishlinn Gannon and Emma Trainor are other key figures within the group.
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Profile
Work Department
Partner and co-head of Matheson’s Disputes and Investigations Group
Position
Julie is a partner and co-head of Matheson’s Disputes and Investigations Group in Matheson.
Julie advises on a wide range of contentious matters including corporate, commercial, aviation and financial services disputes and investigations as well as governance, including in regulated sectors. She specialises in cross-border disputes and fraud, asset recovery, enforcement and jurisdictional issues.
Julie has significant expertise in shareholder disputes and contentious corporate restructuring and insolvency matters (for which she was ranked for many years) and regularly advises in relation to directors’ duties, corporate governance and risk.
Julie is a CEDR accredited mediator. She was appointed to the Council of the Irish Commercial Mediation Association in 2019. She is a Certified Banking Director and a non-executive director of Dell Bank International DAC, where she also chairs its Remuneration and Nominations Committee. Julie was a non-executive director of Irish Semi-State company, Coillte DAC, from 2013 to 2022, by ministerial appointment, and chaired its Remuneration Committee.
Julie is co-author of the Commercial Litigation Association of Ireland’s Practitioners’ Guide to the Commercial Court in Ireland and of the Law Society of Ireland’s Insolvency Law textbook. She is a frequent contributor to Irish and international legal publications and is regularly invited to speak at industry conferences.
Julie was named Client Choice Award Winner for Asset Recovery (Ireland) in 2020.
Education
Qualified as a solicitor in Ireland; Academy of Private International Law, the Netherlands; Leiden University, the Netherlands (Erasmus); Trinity College Dublin (LLB).
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Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘The Team in Matheson are proficient and professional. They have a wide range of expertise and can be relied on to give up to date, commercially minded advice, often at short notice.’
‘Emma Trainor is an incredible practitioner. She is always available. She is full of knowledge and ability. Always prepared to see the job through to the end.'
Key clients
- Nordic Aviation Capital dac
- BOC Aviation Ireland Limited
Work highlights
Represented four aircraft leasing companies (Avolon Aerospace Leasing Limited, BOC Aviation Limited, Nordic Capital DAC and Goshawk Aviation Limited) in proceedings issued against some 42 insurers/syndicates over multimillion-euro losses when planes were unlawfully detained by Russian airlines following the imposition of EU sanctions in February 2022.