With an open-plan office, more opportunities for young lawyers and a transparent stance on fee incomes, Mason Hayes + Curran is taking an alternative approach, writes Una McCaffrey.
It is hard to round a corner in Dublin's south docklands these days without tripping over a lawyer. So fashionable has the area become that, over the next few years, almost all of the city's top-tier commercial firms will relocate to fancy new offices in its previously-deserted core.
Some will even dare to move beyond the riverbank, choosing to position themselves just outside the most popular drag and see what advantages this might bring.
One firm taking this route, both in its choice of office location and in its general attitude to the market, is Mason Hayes + Curran (MHC).
The company, which has been based in its new Barrow Street offices since Easter, has long been biting at the heels of the so-called "big five" law firms - Arthur Cox, A&L Goodbody, McCann FitzGerald, William Fry and Matheson Ormbsy Prentice - but also seems content to stay just outside their ranks.
Declan Moylan, MHC's managing partner, claims to be "indifferent" to moving up in the size rankings, being happy to remain "just tucked outside". Many clients prefer this, he says, adding that it can be better for staff too.
MHC has, according to Moylan, a "slightly alternative approach" that is reflected in everything from open-plan offices (his own desk is the same as everybody else's) to the plus sign the firm uses instead of an ampersand in its name.
For the lawyers, the difference comes in more direct ways, such as being "allowed" to enter the market themselves to see clients at junior levels and to take a more entrepreneurial approach generally.
He also says that MHC has a tradition of promoting associates to partner level at a younger age than other firms, also elevating more women.
The shape of the company is no accident. The partners sat down four or five years ago to decide exactly where it should be going.
The options were simple enough - either it could remain as a boutique law firm that was expert in a fairly small number of areas, or it could transform itself into a full-service business.
The latter option was chosen, although the firm only did so after examining economic trends and trying to work out which areas would grow strongly.
The result was an increased focus on construction (especially public projects), sophisticated financial services and life sciences, including pharmaceuticals.
The result of all of this development has been to create what he likes to call a "virtual" full-service firm that can grow nimbly.
So does that mean MHC will not be following rival firms down the route of consolidation?
"I don't think we have the need to do that," he says, suggesting that the two Dublin firms that have entered into such arrangements over the past year "must have a different market perception".
The implication is that what these firms need for growth, MHC can achieve on its own.
"It would be counter-productive," Moylan adds. He says it just would not make sense for the firm to pin its colours to one international firm when it has connections with so many already.
So will MHC ever break into the ranks of the bigger boys?
"It might happen but if it happens it won't be because we've gone on some sort of run for volume or run for size," says Moylan.
The issue of women reaching partnership level has been a thorny one in high-level legal circles because of an unwritten (and oft-denied) "rule" that pregnancies could only come after the partnership level had been reached. The corollary was that if babies came before partnership, then partnership didn't come at all.
Moylan categorically rejects this in the case of MHC, saying it is "just not the case". He also says the firm's female partners can expect to take the full 22 weeks of paid maternity leave that are available, with unpaid leave a further option after this.
Again, it has been typical in the legal world for maternity leave to be limited, with some larger firms still allowing only 12 weeks to their partners.
MHC is, according to Moylan, a more "modern" enterprise than some of its competitors. However, it seems to be working out.
Snazzy new offices aside, the firm is proving itself on the fee income side too.
Moylan reckons that revenues will rise from about €23 million last year to €27 million this year. He says corporate business such as merger and acquisition deals and stock exchange listings have delivered most growth in 2006, helped by "big-ticket" business such as advice to the Employee Share Ownership Trust at Eircom.
Intriguingly, he says the move to the new office has resulted in more productivity, with billable hours up by no less than 20 per cent. He believes the open-plan layout is at the root of this, with other delights such as the funky staff cafe, staff gym or gleaming atrium sculpture also presumably doing their bit for morale.
The reasons for the uplift are, however, perhaps less interesting in this tight Dublin market than Moylan's readiness to talk about it at all.
Irish lawyers are notoriously shy when it comes to discussing their finances and Moylan's decision to break this mould last year created something of a flurry in pin-striped suit circles.
Moylan argues, rightly, that many solicitors around town are keen on the idea of limited liability partnerships, the model now expected in markets such as the US.
These structures allow for the continuation of the traditional partnership, while offering the partners some protection in the case of the firm running into financial problems. The reasoning is that financial details, including profits per partner, become public, a step that seems to be anathema to the majority of the main players.
"Why would I want to annoy them?" asks Moylan about his rival managing partners. He says he just does not think "lawyers should be ashamed of making a good living".
He points out that unlike most other European capitals, Dublin does not house branches of major international business law firms such as Allen & Overy or Clifford Chance. This offers evidence, in his eyes, of the strength of the domestic service.
"I don't apologise for that," he says, acknowledging that with this kind of prosperity comes lots of hard work, with many of MHC's lawyers "living a deal" for as long as it lasts.
The firm has almost 70 lawyers at the moment, 26 are partners. About half of these partners hold equity.
This suggests a revenue per lawyer (the standard industry measure) of €385,000 for this year, or a revenue per equity partner of slightly more than €1 million.
Moylan will not go so far as to talk about profits, but an analysis performed by respected London-based publication The Lawyer last year suggested an Irish profit margin of about 35 per cent.
A hop and a skip along these lines points towards after-tax profits of €9.5 million at MHC this year, although this is clearly not a scientific calculation.
It is hard to blame Moylan for keeping MHC's profits to himself, given none of the other firms have yet gone as far as him on the fee income side. He hints that he would be prepared to go further if anybody decided to play this kind of legal strip poker but, for the moment, professes himself content to be "perched outside by ourselves".
Factfile
Name: Declan Moylan
Age: 56
Job: Managing partner of Mason Hayes + Curran
Hobbies/interests: visual arts
Why he is in the news: Mason Hayes + Curran is a rapidly growing busines law firm which recently moved to open plan accomodation in Dublin's south Docklands and is reporting vibrant growth in turnover and lawyer number
