Headquartered in Dublin, Dillon Eustace has offices in Tokyo, New York and the Cayman Islands. The firm’s total headcount is 200 people and recent lateral hires include partner Keith Waine, who joined from Barclays Ireland, and senior associates Shane Coveney, Philip Lea and Conor Kiernan, who joined from A&L Goodbody. Managing Partner Mark Thorne specialises in Banking and Capital Markets, Corporate, Mergers and Acquisitions, Corporate Finance and Financial Services.

As Managing Partner, what are the firm management issues that top your priority list?

The key issue facing Dillon Eustace is managing our growth, as we are seeing growth across our core areas of business — litigation, corporate, banking, real estate and financial services. We expanded our property team significantly over the last few years, with the appointment of two new partners and a number of senior support hires and we are now reaping the benefit of this investment. 

We have also seen a significant increase in the amount of new business we are doing in our corporate M&A department, particularly in the area of complex regulated M&A where there is an ongoing market consolidation. Brexit is obviously a key focus for many of our financial services clients who are working to ensure they maintain the maximum access to European investor markets and are setting contingency plans in place.

In the past year, what areas of the practice have you strengthened?

Dillon Eustace has recently strengthened a number of areas both through internal appointment and lateral hires. For example in our financial regulation team with the recent hire new partner and head of that team Keith Waine who joined us from his previous role as head of legal at Barclays Ireland. We also recruited Shane Coveney, Philip Lea and Conor Kiernan as senior associates in our Financial Services, Corporate and Banking and Capital Markets departments respectively. We recently announced the appointment of construction law specialist Fiona O’Neill to our property department. 

How challenging for your firm is the solicitor retention and recruitment issue? 

Dillon Eustace has an excellent record in retention, with many of our senior partners and associates having trained and stayed with the firm throughout. We are also very cognisant of the competitive environment we are operating in, and our need to ensure we continue to train and reward our staff appropriately to maintain our hard won retention record. We, like all others, are seeing the increasing need for and benefit of a higher investment in technology and systems to improve our processes. 

In Association with

How would you describe Dillon Eustace’s USP in the legal marketplace?

This is a strong, focused firm, with an excellent working environment, client service ethos and a good spread of domestic and international clients. 

What recent client deals would you single out?

It is very difficult to choose just one, when we have had such a busy year across the practice with numerous deals attracting attention. These include advising FBD on their convertible notes transaction, successfully defending the Sunday Business Post in the defamation action taken by Denis O’Brien, acting for Merrion Capital on its sale to Cantor Fitzgerald, Legal & General on the establishment of their Irish operations, NAMA on the important Tyrrelstown Development and in acting for the note subscribers in respect of Project Glenbeigh, a securitisation originated by PTSB.