Arthur Cox has offices in Dublin, Belfast, London, New York and Silicon Valley. In March 2017, the firm moved to a bespoke building on Hatch Street in D2. Arthur Cox appointed six new partners at the start of 2018, bringing the number of partners in Dublin to 84 and the percentage of women partners to 33%. The firm also made three senior lateral hires in its asset management and investment funds teams. The firm was named Irish Law Firm of the Year 2017 at the Chambers Europe Awards, and is led by Managing Partner Brian O'Gorman (pictured).

Over the past year, which aspects of the firm’s development have pleased you most?

I am always pleased to see the firm develop and grow in different ways every year. In the past year, a significant development was our move to a new building at Ten Earlsfort Terrace. Whilst the new building is only up the road from our old offices, life in the office has been transformed and it's great to be able to offer state of the art facilities to everyone. Ee now have outdoor spaces, a restaurant and a gym as well as sit-stand desks and laptops for everyone to facilitate and encourage agile working.

Another major development for the firm was the arrival in January of this year of three new senior members of our asset management and investment funds team - Tara O'Reilly, Cormac Commins and Ian Dillon. This is an exciting time for the funds industry in Ireland and Tara, Cormac and Ian are a great addition to our very strong practice in this area.

As Managing Partner, which operational issues concern you most?

People are the most important aspect of our business so finding the right people and retaining them is always top of my agenda. We are always looking for ways to make people's lives easier and more manageable in what can be a very demanding, challenging and exciting career. Our associates are very good at letting us know what we could be doing better (as well as what we are getting right!).

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What are the reasons for the rebound in the Irish economy?

I am not sure that all aspects of the Irish economy have rebounded strongly in recent years. We were starting from a very low base it has to be said and there was a serious lack of confidence in the country - both domestically and internationally. I think we have rebuilt that confidence and the world has seen that we have restructured the country's finances in a sensible and measured fashion. As an open, outward-looking economy, the Irish economy is of course always strongly influenced by international economic trends which have, on balance, been upward recently. I think that the availability of credit has enabled transactions to proceed that were either put on hold or not entered into at all until the economy began to rebound.

Do you regard Brexit as an opportunity or a threat?

Like most Irish businesses, we would much prefer if Brexit didn’t happen. The uncertainty in the wake of the Brexit vote is now really the new normal and business life has continued, after an initial period of shock. I think that like most threats, there are some opportunities but it is important not to underestimate the threats. We have advised and continue to advise existing and new clients on their options post-Brexit.