‘Our M&A team had a particularly busy year’
JOHN WHITE
ACTIVITY While there were several challenges facing the Irish economy in 2023, we saw increased demand across all areas of the firm. Our M&A team had a particularly busy year, ranking second amongst Irish firms in deal volume. We are planning to grow again in 2024, and we expect our energy, housing, and regulatory teams to expand. Our M&A pipeline looks strong and an improving outlook on interest rates should encourage more investment.
OPERATIONS As with any business of our size, there are multiple operational challenges. We have strong finance and business support teams, and I tend to work closely with our Director of Finance and our heads of HR, IT, marketing, bids, knowledge, and risk. Risk and cyber risk require ongoing attention and innovation to ensure first-class business processes and security.
Our management group commits a lot of time to strategy and people. We constantly evolve to attract and retain talent, so we have to flex how we engage with and respond to the changing needs of our people. We have invested more in training and coaching at all levels in the firm, and while we embrace hybrid
working we try to support and incentivise in-person interaction. Furthermore, ESG is a standing item on our partners’ meeting agenda, so decisions are filtered through our sustainability and DEI targets.
AI Our lawyers have been using technology and data analytics for some time in large legal project delivery, disputes, due diligence and document production. Where IT supports lawyers and creates efficiencies in service delivery and project management, we pass these efficiencies on to the client. We find that sophisticated clients particularly in-house teams - require the use of technology, including AI, and a mix of people delivering the service, from solicitors
to paralegals to contract administrators.
We are testing a number of generative AI tools at the moment. These tools are not perfect and while they are useful there is a distance to travel from a risk management perspective.
OUTLOOK The Irish economy has been extremely resilient, but some sectors, such as office and high street, still present significant challenges. My sense from speaking to clients and indeed colleagues in other countries is that there is more optimism now than this time last year, chiefly because interest rates appear to have passed their peak.
That optimism is tempered by relative geopolitical instability.