Industry & Business

Irish law firm Matheson has announced the opening of an office in San Francisco. With over 650 staff headquartered in Dublin, this expansion represents the firm’s third US office – and its fifth office globally. The opening is in response to the continually increasing client demand on the West Coast for Irish legal services, and it builds upon the firm’s presence in the region through its existing West Coast office in Palo Alto.

Commenting on the opening, Michael Jackson, Matheson Managing Partner said: “Matheson is a market leader for Irish legal services – and the opening of our San Francisco office continues our track record of servicing our clients where they are located and providing immediate access to Irish legal advice and support on the most complex legal matters.  Our new San Francisco office allows us to support our West Coast client base with operations in Ireland, and also our Irish client base accessing international markets.

“We are seeing growth in the areas of technology, data protection, fintech, intellectual property, international corporate transactions and tax. The new office will focus on these areas as well as other key areas including pharma, medtech and financial services.”

The new office will be led by Matheson West Coast Head Partner Mark O’Sullivan, together with technology and privacy partner Chris Bollard, who joins the firm on 1 August.

Mr O’Sullivan noted: “The US West Coast is an important technology and innovation ecosystem with significant investment into Ireland. Face to face relationships are as important to us as they are to our clients – and all of our global offices are partner-led.

“The global technology industry is booming, fuelled by advancements in emerging areas such as AI and data analytics. Post-Brexit, Ireland, with an already large presence of technology multinationals, has the capacity to benefit from additional US investment into Europe. The opening of our San Francisco office will support our continued collaboration with our clients and help them to remain competitive as they deal with the complexity of the current market conditions. Furthermore, working with the strong Irish Government support network and the IDA on the West Coast, we can play a part in integrating more of these companies into Ireland, ultimately creating revenue growth and job opportunities.”

In parallel with the firm’s international expansion, Matheson has made seven new senior appointments.

As the firm’s Corporate teams see deal value totalling in excess of $36.5 billion in 2016, Robert O’Shea has been announced new Head of the firm’s Corporate and Commercial Department. Robert has vast experience in leading multi-jurisdictional transactions and has held advisory roles in some of the largest inward investment and restructuring projects in Ireland, including for Fortune 100 companies.

Six other senior appointments at the firm’s Corporate Group which have been announced are:

Anne-Marie Bohan has been appointed head of Matheson’s Technology and Innovation Group. Ms Bohan is an experienced lawyer with particular expertise in advising on technology and privacy legal matters across a broad range of industries and brings an understanding of applicable regulatory rules and regulatory requirements.

Pat English has been appointed Head of the firm’s International Business Group.  Mr English is an experienced corporate lawyer, recognised for his counsel to international and particularly American clients on international corporate reorganisations, pre- and post-integration transactions and cross-border mergers.

Darren Maher has been appointed head of Matheson’s International Financial Institutions Group. Mr Maher, a member of Matheson’s Brexit Advisory Group, has held a number of key advisory roles, including to the Minister for Finance on the €1.3 billion sale of Irish Life Assurance and to AIB on the sale of Ark Life Assurance.

Ciaran Healy has joined the firm as a new partner in the Corporate and Commercial Department.  He has joined Matheson from another Irish law firm and previously worked with Clifford Chance in London. He advises a wide range of leading international and Irish public corporations, and private equity and venture capital funds on all legal aspects of their corporate affairs. Among others, Ciaran has advised Virgin Media, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Global, on its acquisition of UTV Ireland from ITV plc; Activision Blizzard Inc on its $5.9 billion acquisition of King Digital Entertainment plc; McKesson Corporation on its acquisition of the pharmaceutical distribution business of FTSE 250 company, UDG Healthcare plc; and Mondelēz International on the $18 billion spin-off of its North American grocery business, Kraft Foods, Inc.

Two new partner appointments have been made in the firm’s Technology and Innovation Group. From 1 August, Chris Bollard and Deirdre Kilroy will join Matheson. Deirdre joins from another Irish law firm and will assume the role of Head of the Intellectual Property Group at Matheson. Deirdre is a leading IP, technology and data privacy partner and a recognised GDPR expert.  Chris is a recognised expert in IT law, data privacy, e-commerce and intellectual property.  He holds an LLM in Law, Science and Technology from Stanford University Law School.