Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, has officially launched in Dublin, an economy powered by foreign investment and a priority market for the Firm’s clients. The team, which is based at Joshua Dawson House in Dublin City Centre, is led by Managing Partner Eavan Saunders who joined the firm earlier this year along with banking partner and Chair Peter O’Brien. Corporate partner Shane O’Donnell will also be joining shortly.

An elite partner team

The firm announces that partner Gareth Steen has joined the business and partner Maireadh Dale is set to join in January 2021.

Maireadh Dale is a banking partner with expertise in domestic credit transactions, international leverage buy-out deals and asset finance. Gareth Steen is a contentious and non-contentious restructuring and insolvency partner, as well as a highly experienced financial services litigator. They join a partner team currently comprised of: Eavan Saunders; Shane O’Donnell – previously Head of Corporate at William Fry; and senior finance and capital markets partner Peter O’Brien who has worked in Dubai and London as well as Dublin.

Maireadh Dale has been a partner at A&L Goodbody since 2000 and previously worked for Bank of Ireland. Her extensive transaction experience includes aviation, corporate, and property & development financing. Maireadh will work closely with Peter O’Brien to develop and enhance the firm’s banking offer and compete for global financial institution activity as well as helping to nurture key talent as the organisation grows.

Gareth Steen will drive the firm’s restructuring and special situations activity. Gareth has been a partner at Mason Hayes & Curran since 2016 having initially qualified at A&L Goodbody. Gareth and Eavan will lead a multi disciplinary insolvency restructuring and special situation team to deliver cohesive and commercial advice to corporations, credit providers and other stakeholders in distressed situations.

A team of associates has been recruited from other leading Irish and international law firms and further hires at all levels are in the pipeline.

The leading global law firm in Dublin

“As a global centre of aviation finance and a European financial services and technology hub, Dublin is a priority market for many of our clients,” said Elliott Portnoy, Global CEO of Dentons. “Our objective is to be in all of the places our clients do business, providing them with access to high quality lawyers who are established leaders in their markets.”

“Our message to ambitious lawyers in Ireland is that we aim to become the leading global law firm in Dublin,” said Dentons’ Global Chairman Joe Andrew. “We can now connect our clients in other parts of the world to leading talent in Ireland and we can also offer Irish companies with international ambitions the scale, quality and sector specialisation that no other law firm in this market can match. Each member of our team in Dublin has joined us from one of Ireland’s other leading law firms because they have bought into this vision.”

“When we announced our intentions for Dublin we committed to identifying and attracting the top talent in the market. We only want to hire the best in the business and in Maireadh and Gareth we have two excellent leaders in their respective fields who will deepen our banking expertise and establish us as a go-to insolvency firm in this market,” said Eavan Saunders. “We now have an elite team of partners and associates across corporate, finance, restructuring and real estate. Our aim is to continue to grow, while attracting premium mandates in the New Dynamic that is emerging out of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

An exciting opportunity for up-and-coming lawyers with an international mind-set

“The Irish business community now has access to the largest pool of legal talent in the world,” said Dentons’ CEO for the UK, Ireland and Middle East Jeremy Cohen. “We provide clients with access to more than 10,000 lawyers in 188 locations across 76 countries; are one of the leading global law firms in the UK and a top 10 international firm on the European continent; have offices in 37 US cities; are the largest law firm in China and offer the widest international footprint across the ASEAN region and Australasia; are the only Pan-Latin American and the Caribbean law firm; and have ambitions to be the leading Pan African law firm. This is a really exciting opportunity for up and coming Irish lawyers with an international mind-set.”

In 2020 to date, Dentons has announced a future combination with Salt Lake City-based Durham Jones & Pinegar as part of Project Golden Spike and launched six combinations:

• Dentons Bingham Greenebaum and Dentons Cohen & Grigsby, the inaugural member firms with Dentons US as part of Project Golden Spike;
• Dentons Kensington Swan in New Zealand;
• Dentons Lee in South Korea;
• Dentons Jiménez de Aréchaga in Uruguay; and
• Dentons Rattagan Macchiavello Arocena in Argentina.

Dentons has also opened offices in the British Virgin Islands and St. Lucia.

About Dentons

Dentons is the world’s largest law firm, connecting talent to the world’s challenges and opportunities in more than 75 countries. Dentons’ legal and business solutions benefit from deep roots in our communities and award-winning advancements in client service, including Nextlaw, Dentons’ innovation and strategic advisory services. Dentons’ polycentric and purpose-driven approach, commitment to inclusion and diversity, and world-class talent challenge the status quo to advance client and community interests in the New Dynamic. www.dentons.com