Cork-based Ronan Daly Jermyn (RDJ), one of Ireland's leading commercial law firms, has agreed a merger with William B Glynn Solicitors in Galway that will bring its fee income into line with Dublin's large legal practices.
The new entity, to be called RDJ, Cork and RDJ Glynn, Galway, will be the largest legal firm outside of Dublin, with estimated fee income of between €18 million and €25 million.
John Dwyer, managing partner at RDJ, said the Cork-based company had been looking to expand into Galway for a while and that William B Glynn was an excellent match.
He said the firm would be looking to hire a further 15 staff in the next few months to bring its combined headcount to 155 and may seek to recruit more people further down the line. RDJ, Cork currently employs about 125 people, while a further 15 are currently employed at William B Glynn in Galway. The new staff will initially all work in Galway.
Mr Dwyer said RDJ Glynn would have a significant advantage in the Galway market as the only legal practice with any substantial scale. He said this would allow the company to employ specialists in the areas of commercial law, commercial property, employment law and taxation and as a result to cross sell services and attract more business.
"Both firms identified a strong demand in the west of Ireland for a law firm providing legal services to the business community," said Billy Glynn, partner at William B Glynn. "Our aspirations were matched by RDJ's objectives and the result is great news for our existing clients and those seeking specialist legal advice in the western region."
Mr Dwyer said that the priority for now was to integrate the two companies' operations, but admitted that in the long run this merger could be used as a template for other such link ups around the country.
He said that currently the regions are not very well served by large law firms, with the majority of bigger practices choosing to service their regional clients out of their Dublin offices. He believes there is an opportunity for anyone with specialist legal skills, particularly in the area of business, to expand their operations significantly in the regions. "This is a huge opportunity on a local level and there is no reason why it couldn't be replicated around the country," he said.
