Hall of Fame
The lawyers at the very top of the profession, widely known and respected by peers and clients for their longstanding involvement in market-leading work.
Alicia Compton is a Partner in William Fry’s Employment & Pensions Department. She advises on employment matters with particular experience in advising on the employment aspects of corporate restructuring, the termination of employment and in relation to employment issues in the public sector. Alicia has written extensively on employment law and is the Practice and Procedure contributor to the Irish Employment Law Journal.
Séamus is Head of our Employment Group. He has more than 30 years’ experience in advising on all aspects of employment law and industrial relations law and crisis management issues.
Duncan is Head of A&L Goodbody's Employment Law Group and has practiced exclusively in the area of employment law and industrial relations in multiple jurisdictions. Duncan advises public and private sector employers on both contentious and non-contentious matters. He advises Board rooms across Ireland and abroad on strategic and complex employment and industrial relations matters. Duncan also specialises in crisis management for clients and has advised on some of the most high profile corporate issues in Ireland. Duncan regularly appears for clients in the Workplace Relations Commission, the Circuit Court, the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. Duncan also acts for partnerships in mediated settlements and in proceedings in the High Court.
Kevin Langford is a partner in the Employment Law Group. He is an experienced employment lawyer who places a lot of emphasis on offering practical and pragmatic solutions to clients.
Terence advises employers on all aspects of employment, equality and industrial relations law and has extensive experience dealing with employment cases before the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), Labour Court and the courts including employment injunctions and litigation. Terence gives strategic advice to Boards on disputes and issues arising with senior executives. He also carries out reviews and investigations for Boards and delivers Reports. Terence advises on whistleblowing related issues and the application of Protected Disclosures legislation to whistleblowing incidents for organisations. Also, all aspects of the Digital Workplace and its relevance to social media policies and forensic workplace investigations. Terence is a leading commentator on employment law issues and gives the keynote legal overview on all employment law developments in Ireland at the Annual Industrial Relations News (IRN) Conference. He is a CEDR accredited mediator and has participated in mediations and acted as a Mediator.
Rising stars
Rising stars with regular involvement in their team's key work, and recognition from peers or clients as being ones to watch.
Next Generation Partners
Junior partners with significant recognition from clients and peers in the market and key roles on multiple matters.
Geraldine is a partner in the Employment, Pensions and Benefits Group. She provides strategic, practical and commercially focussed advice to international and domestic clients on all aspects of employment law. Her practice spans a variety of sectors, including technology, financial services and pharmaceuticals. Geraldine has extensive experience advising in relation to the management of employees on a day to day basis, including the drafting and implementation of contractual documentation and employment policies and procedures, as well as guiding employers through crisis management issues in the context of workplace investigations, misconduct allegations, grievances, bullying, harassment, and performance management procedures. Geraldine has particular expertise in advising clients on senior executive appointments and terminations, particularly in regulated industries, as well as case managing employment injunctions and defending claims before the Workplace Relations Commission, the Circuit Court and the High Court. She provides pragmatic advice on the employment law aspects of corporate restructurings, outsourcings, and individual and collective redundancy situations. Geraldine worked with Matheson’s US client base from the firm’s San Francisco and Palo Alto offices for six months in 2017 / 18. As a result, Geraldine has a deep understanding of the key distinctions between employment law in Ireland as compared with other jurisdictions. She frequently provides bespoke employment law workshops to clients. She is a regular speaker at conferences and a tutor at the Law Society’s professional practice course for trainee solicitors. She also regularly publishes articles on employment law matters. Topics on which she has recently written and spoken on include: “Fair Procedures and the Right to Cross Examination during Workplace Investigations”, “US Employers in Ireland: Key Distinctions Between the Employment Law Landscape in the US and Ireland”, “Recent Developments in Employment Injunctions”, “Common Pitfalls and Developing Trends in Employment Law in Ireland’, “Important Ruling Extends the WRC’s Powers to Disregard National Law that is Contrary to EU Law”, and various articles on Ireland’s workplace relations system. Geraldine is an active committee member of the Employment Law Association of Ireland (ELAI) and the Law Society of Ireland’s Employment and Equality Law Committee. She is also an active member of the American Bar Association’s International Labor and Employment Law section and the European Employment Law Association of Ireland. Geraldine originally qualified as a Chartered Tax Adviser.
Michael Doyle is a partner in A&L Goodbody's Employment Law group. He advises domestic and international employers across a wide range of sectors on all aspects of contentious and non-contentious employment law and industrial relations matters. He provides employers with prompt and pragmatic advice on compliance with their legal obligations, the conduct of internal HR processes and the termination of employment. He also advises employers on data protection law and corporate immigration. Michael has considerable experience of defending employers in complex employment litigation before the WRC, Labour Court and High Court. He also has particular expertise in advising on the employment aspects of corporate transactions and outsourcings.
Jeffrey is a Partner in William Fry's Employment & Benefits Department and advises on all contentious and non-contentious employment law matters. He specialises in advising public and private sector organisations on the employment law aspects of corporate transactions, restructurings, and outsourcings, with a particular expertise in Transfer of Undertakings (TUPE) matters. He also advises clients on all aspects of employment, employment equality, and industrial relations law, and has acted for clients before all the Irish courts and employment law forums. He is heavily involved in the firm's FDI focus as well as with start-up companies.
Stephen is our Managing Partner. Before commencing as Managing Partner, Stephen had many years’ experience as a strategic adviser at the highest level in client organisations, guiding them on the people aspects of their significant corporate transactions, organisational change and most critical disputes. Stephen has specialist skills in whistleblowing and investigations into protected disclosures and white-collar crime. He has significant expertise in the employment and industrial relations aspects of acquisitions, mergers, outsourcings, procurement and restructurings; including on redundancy law, union issues, consultation and TUPE. He is one of the leading experts in the Irish market in whistleblowing investigations, with expertise in the highest level investigations across different industries, economic sectors and different legal issues. Stephen is co-author of the chapter on Ireland in the International Comparative Legal Guide to Employment & Labour Law 2018 published by the Global Legal Group and was educated in UCD and DePaul University in Chicago.
Louise has a broad advisory, litigation and transactional practice covering all aspects of employment law both contentious and non-contentious. Louise provides commercial and solutions focussed advice to a wide range of clients to include clients in the financial services, manufacturing, retail, technology, energy, pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. Louise advises and represents employers in all types of employment disputes, including unfair dismissal, employment injunctions, occupational stress and bullying claims, transfer of undertakings, fixed-term and part-time work and discrimination claims. She regularly appears for clients in the Workplace Relations Commission, the Circuit Court, the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. Louise has particular expertise in advising on the employment aspects of corporate transactions and outsourcings.
Russell is a partner in the Employment, Pensions and Benefits Group with over 13 years’ experience advising a wide range of public sector, third sector, corporate and institutional clients in the UK and Ireland across the spectrum of contentious and non-contentious employment, industrial relations, equality and immigration law. Russell has a particular expertise in advising clients on the complex workforce challenges that arise from their commercial activities, having been the employment lead on some of the largest reorganisations, outsourcings and commercial transactions across the private and public sector in the UK and Ireland in recent years. This has included major National Health Service reorganisations in the UK and large M&A transactions in Ireland covering, amongst other things, staff transfers (TUPE in particular), due diligence, individual and collective redundancies and the consequent litigation that can arise in such projects. Russell also has extensive experience in managing sensitive and complex employment disputes and litigation, including High Court injunction proceedings, and is regularly lauded by both clients and peers alike for his personable and commercially practicable approach in dealing with such matters. Russell‘s breadth of experience and expertise in UK employment matters means that he frequently works with clients and potential clients operating in and from the UK to advise them on the differences and nuances between UK and Irish employment laws, amongst other things. This also means that he has unrivalled experience in advising clients on matters such as whistleblowing and has played a vital role in the Group becoming the “go to” Irish employment group for Brexit-related matters. Russell is an active member of the UK Employment Lawyers Association, the European Employment Lawyers Association, the Employment Lawyers Association of Ireland and the American Bar Association. As well as delivering regular presentations and training to colleagues and clients, Russell has delivered bespoke training to members of the American Chamber of Commerce and the Institute of Directors in Ireland on managing employment law risk and defending employment claims. He also regularly presents at employment conferences organised by the American Bar Association in the US and the White Company here in Ireland. Russell co-authored the Ireland Chapter of the 2016 / Fifth Edition and the 2018 / 6th Edition of The Littler Mendelson Guide to International Employment and Labor Law, which covers employment law in over 60 countries.
Leading individuals
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Jennifer is Head of Employment and is also a member of the firm’s Healthcare and Cyber and Data Protection Teams. She is nationally regarded for her encyclopaedic knowledge of employment law and is the “go-to” advisor for corporate clients in both the public and private sectors. Jennifer's key clients include scaling and established Irish companies in a variety of sectors, multinational companies in the technology, pharmaceutical, medical devices and diagnostics sectors and public authorities. Her focus is on working closely with her clients to provide commercial legal advice and practical, commercial solutions for their business. Strengthening the Team’s focus in the medical-technical sector, Jennifer is a member of RDJ’s Healthcare Team, acting for clients including pharmaceutical companies, health insurers, numerous medical device companies, and nursing homes. Advice includes regulatory and employment healthcare-specific issues, in respect of which Jennifer represents her clients before the Courts and the WRC/Labour Court. Jennifer is regularly invited to contribute as a key-note speaker at employment law and HR conferences, events and webinars for CIPD, Legal-Island and White Paper Conference Company Limited. She is a recognised thought-leader on various employment law and HR issues, in particular in the areas of retirement ages and age discrimination.
Bryan Dunne is a partner and head of the Employment Practice at Matheson. He advises on a variety of aspects of employment law, both contentious and non-contentious. This work includes preparation of senior executive service agreements and severance arrangements for international employers, defence work in contentious employment litigation matters and advising on all employment aspects of commercial transactions. He also regularly advises employers on internal grievance and disciplinary processes, with particular focus on senior executive level employees. Bryan is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association of Ireland, and the European Employment Lawyers Association. He is also a member of American Bar Association’s International Labour and Employment Law section and a co-author of the Irish Chapter for the ABA's annual publication on International Labour and Employment Law. He has also presented at numerous ABA and other events in the US and Europe and has been the European Chair of the ABA CLE teleconference training programme since 2006. Bryan has also written articles for Irish and European trade and legal publications on employment issues, and is a tutor and examiner on employment law on the Law Society's solicitor training course. He has published a chapter on International Employment and Secondment in a leading Irish employment law text, and is a regular speaker on cross border employment issues to US audiences. He is also a fluent Spanish speaker and a member of the Irish Spanish Economic Association, and advises many leading Spanish companies on employment law issues in their Irish operations.
Catherine is Head of William Fry’s Employment & Benefits Department. She advises on all contentious and non-contentious employment matters with a particular expertise in equality issues. Catherine also has significant experience advising clients in relation to confidentiality, restrictive covenants and severance related matters. Catherine has acted on behalf of a wide range of commercial clients and also regularly advises senior level executives.
Partner with extensive experience in advising clients of our Corporate and commercial and Employment Law departments. Breda has particular expertise in employment law, advising both employers and employees on all aspects of the employment relationship, including terms and conditions of employment, equality matters and industrial relations issues. She proactively works to resolve employment disputes in a conciliatory manner where feasible. Breda handles employment law claims directly herself without Counsel in the Employment Appeals Tribunal, the Equality Tribunal and other industrial relations fora. She has a wide range of experience in dealing with commercial disputes, with a focus on resolving them at the earliest stage possible. Her commercial litigation experience extends across the range of civil courts in Ireland. She has extensive experience of drafting and negotiating commercial contracts at the different levels of the business supply chain. She advises on a wide range of legal queries for businesses across a range of sectors including retail, logistics, aviation and others. Breda is a CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution) accredited mediator and practices as a mediator of commercial and employment disputes. She is currently a Council Member of the Irish Commercial Mediation Association. She is also a member of One Resolve, a panel of accredited mediators with legal, financial and insurance expertise. She regularly gives management and staff training workshops and up-skilling practical seminars to employer business clients on employment law issues. She has presented widely to trade and professional groups and at high profile conferences on topics including outsourcing, shared services, agency workers and the Working Time Directive and TUPE regulations. Breda trained with Hayes solicitors and then worked as an in-house Solicitor in Coca Cola before spending 12 years practising commercial and employment law in a large Dublin firm. She rejoined Hayes as a partner in 2008.
