Global law firm DLA Piper, which set up an operation in the Irish market in 2019, said it plans to double its existing 100-strong workforce in Ireland in the coming years. The firm moved into a six-floor 30,000sq ft office on Molesworth Street, Dublin, last year.
“This expansion, which will see the company double its workforce, underlines DLA Piper’s commitment to Ireland,” said Dónal Travers, head of technology, consumer and business services at IDA Ireland. “It adds to Ireland’s reputation as a strategic location of choice for driving international growth in the legal sector, offering companies a consistent, pro-business environment in which to grow and thrive in an ever-changing global economic climate.”
Dublin’s corporate law services sector, which had long stood out as an anomaly across western economies in recent decades as a tight-knit community dominated by the storied six names of Matheson, Arthur Cox, A&L Goodbody, Mason Hayes & Curran, McCann Fitzgerald and William Fry, has become a hotbed of activity in the past five years.
Firms including London-based Pinsent Masons, DLA Piper, Simmons & Simmons and Ashurst, and US names like Tully Rinckey, Covington & Burling and Dentons, as well as the dual US-UK legal house Hogan Lovells, have set up shop in the Irish capital since the Brexit referendum – largely poaching senior partners from the “big six” to establish practices.
Increased globalisation, with many of the world’s largest technology and pharmaceutical companies now well-entrenched in the Republic, has made Dublin increasingly difficult for firms boasting international networks to ignore.
The top 10 taxpayers in the Republic in 2020 were all multinationals, led by Apple, Microsoft, Google, Pfizer, MSD, Johnson & Johnson and Facebook.
Country managing partner for DLA Piper in Ireland, David Carthy, said: “We are particularly proud of the culture we have developed as we have grown. and we intend to build on the momentum achieved so far, and ensure, as the market evolves, that we have the highly skilled, sector-focused team that mirrors the expectations of our clients.
“We continue to be ambitious for our future in Ireland, and look forward to growing the business further in the coming years and delivering change in the Irish legal industry.”
