Dentons announces expansion into Ireland
Dentons, the world's largest law firm, has announced its expansion into Ireland, with a Dublin office to be fully operational from Q2.
Respected Irish lawyers Eavan Saunders and Peter O'Brien will found the office, respectively becoming managing partner and chair. Dentons says it "intends to grow the office quickly".
Ms Saunders, an experienced corporate lawyer, was previously a senior partner at leading Irish law firm William Fry as well as at global law firm Ashurst. Mr O'Brien is a senior finance and capital markets partner at Matheson and will join Dentons shortly.
The Dublin office will initially focus on transactional work for clients, particularly in the financial services, real estate, energy, infrastructure and technology sectors.
Elliott Portnoy, Dentons' global CEO, commented: "Dublin is a leading offshore funds centre, a global centre of aviation finance and nine out of 10 of the world's largest tech companies have their European headquarters in the city. Dentons' strategy is to be in all of the places our clients do business, providing them with high quality lawyers who are also established leaders in their markets.
"We are delighted to have attracted a partner of Eavan's calibre to lead our Dublin office. Ireland is a priority market for many of our clients. However, many of the strongest firms in Ireland rely on referrals from firms outside of London. That is why we are opening our own office rather than combining with another firm at this time."
Jeremy Cohen, CEO for Dentons' UK and Middle East region, added: "Eavan and Peter have very impressive reputations in the Irish market, having advised blue chip domestic and international clients on some of their most important corporate and finance transactions in recent years. Our aim is to build an elite team that can offer the highest quality advice combined with unrivalled international reach. Over the next few months we will be looking to hire further outstanding legal talent as we develop our plans to quickly reach full service capability."
Dentons offers access to more than 10,000 lawyers in 181 locations across 73 countries around the globe.
Dentons is one of the world's most innovative law firms. It has launched global legal tech accelerator and innovation consultancy Nextlaw Labs, award winning legal referral network Nextlaw Referral Network and global strategic business of law advisory Nextlaw In-House Solutions.