JUNE HYNES

Joint Managing Partner OBH Partners

ACTIVITY Our key service areas have proved remarkably resilient during the pandemic and we have worked on a number of substantial transactions since Covid restrictions commenced, including the Charlemont Hotel acquisition and leaseback. While our overall revenue has been impacted, our priority was to ensure that we retain all staff and we have been successful in doing this.

There has been a lot of focus on Covidrelated landlord and tenant negotiations, particularly as we have a number of retail clients. On the corporate side, several clients have sought funding support, for example from Enterprise Ireland through the Sustaining Enterprise Fund. In other cases, the business model of clients has changed and prompted a review of contract arrangements and terms of business. In a small number of cases, existing business models are no longer sustainable and therefore we have advised on restructuring and in some cases dissolution.

From an employment perspective, clients have had numerous Covid-related issues such as implementing short time or lay-off, redundancies and amendments to contracts of employment and employee handbooks to deal with remote working.

LITIGATION To date, there has been a very significant reduction in the number of hearings held in person, but certain applications that lend themselves to remote hearing have been held more or less as normal, though there are longer periods between issuing applications and having them heard.

It remains possible to issue proceedings in the ordinary way, but many cases not deemed urgent have been adjourned to future dates. Case delays should be expected for some time post-pandemic.

OUTLOOK Overseas investment in commercial property has been particularly active throughout the past 18 months and continues to perform extremely well. Clients involved in the financial services and technology sectors have been performing well throughout the pandemic. We also act for a number of distilleries and breweries, and while lockdown has had an impact on such businesses, some of these clients re-adjusted quickly by moving to the production of products such as hand sanitiser, or changing their business model to focus on off-sales.

Sector experience throughout the pandemic has been different, with biotech, healthcare and technology performing well. We have seen M&A recovery and increased activity in the final quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021. The current climate has brought even more challenges for startups, and we will continue to work with them with a view to developing long-term client relationships.

‘The current climate has brought even more challenges for startups’