RDJ LLP

rdj.ie

Aisling O'Donovan

Aisling is a Partner, practising as part of the firm’s Banking and Finance team. She advises several leading domestic and international banks, financial institutions and non-bank lenders in relation to bilateral and syndicated facilities. Aisling provides banking legal advice to some leading Irish corporates, property investors and developers. Aisling advises on a broad range of banking-related matters. She has particular expertise advising on the finance elements of investment and development real estate transactions. She has also advised international entities on various consumer and regulatory issues in relation to the Irish lending market and has advised a number of Irish and international banks on their standard loan and security documentation. Aisling trained and spent over seven years practising with a top five Irish law firm. She was also selected for a secondment with the legal department of leading European bank.

Antoinette Vahey

Antoinette is a Partner, practising as part of the Employment law team. She brings practical and strategic legal advice to clients in a range of areas such as wrongful and unfair dismissal; discrimination; absenteeism and work-related stress; performance management; temporary and contingent workers; collective redundancies; restrictive covenants and severance agreements. Antoinette represents clients on employment claims in the Workplace Relations Commission, Labour Court and High Court together with gender discrimination claims in the Circuit Court. Having qualified as a mediator with the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution in 2013 (specialising in employment and workplace disputes), Antoinette is focused on expanding RDJ’s independent mediation offering to provide the best solution to our clients. Antoinette is particularly interested in the areas of transfer of undertakings (TUPE ), Vetting and social media in the workplace and has spoken extensively at various events on legislative and other changes in those areas. She also devises in-house training sessions and policies for clients in respect of grievance and disciplinary matters, dignity at work and social media.

Ashling leads the Insolvency and Corporate Restructuring Team, practising across the areas of corporate, commercial and insolvency. She uses her extensive knowledge of Irish company law to significant advantage in advising clients on both sale and acquisition sides of distressed companies. Ashling’s practice includes advising on all types of restructurings and insolvency law matters and has vast experience in advising insolvency practitioners, financial institutions, liquidators, examiners, receivers, debtors and distressed companies. She has many years of experience acting for financial institutions in the context of debt settlement arrangements and has advised in relation to a number of significant receiverships and liquidations. She also regularly advises on both examiners and petitioners with respect to the examinership regime. Ashling is recognised as a leading lawyer for Insolvency in The Legal 500 and is a member of the Irish Society of Insolvency Practitioners (ISIP). She lectures on the Law Society PPC 2 Insolvency course and has presented at a number of external seminars on insolvency matters. She has also co-written two chapters of the most recent edition of the Law Society’s insolvency manual.

Brendan O'Connell

Brendan is a Partner, practising as part of the firms Dispute Resolution team. He is highly talented litigator who has gained considerable experience in dealing with the conduct of litigation and dispute resolution on behalf of national and international insurance companies, municipal authorities and state bodies, in the area of motor, employer liability, public liability and products liability claims. Brendan has developed particular expertise in insurance fraud and has successfully defended numerous high profile insurance fraud cases on behalf of Insurance clients. He has also developed a niche expertise in the area of Low Velocity Impact motor claims, and has had numerous notable successes for defendant clients in the Circuit & High Court. Brendan advises clients on a range of contentious matters including personal injury, contract, debt collection and property related matters. He has gained practical experience in all aspects of litigation procedure in all Court jurisdictions.

Brendan Cunningham

Brendan is a Partner, practising as part of the firm's Banking and Finance team. He has experience advising in commercial property and banking acting both on behalf of banks but also on behalf of property developers, large companies, receivers, liquidators and examiners. Brendan specialises in all aspects of banking and finance, focusing on transactions in the areas of corporate lending, acquisition finance, asset financing, secured and unsecured lending, property finance, the restructuring/enforcement of loans and loan portfolio sales and purchases. Brendan is a Past President of the Southern Law Association, a member of the Council of the Law Society for the last 9 years, a former chairman of a division of its Regulation of Practice Committee and current vice- chair of its Education Committee. He is recommended as a leading Banking and Finance lawyer in The Legal 500.

Brian is a Partner, practising as part of the firm’s Banking and Finance team. He advises both Irish and international financial institutions and borrowers in relation to a large range of domestic and cross-border corporate finance transactions including leveraged acquisition finance, development finance, debt restructuring and refinancing, senior and mezzanine financing and capital markets transactions. Brian strives to achieve the best outcome for his clients by partnering with them to find simple solutions to complex problems. Before joining RDJ, Brian qualified into the banking and finance group of another top-tier Irish law firm in 2013, Brian spent a number of years working in the leveraged finance team of the London office of a leading US law firm before returning to Ireland.

Brian Morrissey

Brian is a Partner, practising as part of the Dispute Resolution team. He has extensive experience in defence litigation, handling a diverse portfolio of cases primarily in the Circuit and High Court. Brian advises insurance companies and self-insured multinational companies in the area of personal injury litigation, product liability and material damage claims. He has extensive experience in defending high value major loss claims in the High Court, dealing with a wide range of expert witnesses based both in Ireland and the UK in defending these claims. Brian also has experience in defending fraudulent and exaggerated claims and dealing with Special Investigation Teams in various insurance companies.

Brian O'Halloran

Brian is a Partner, practising as part of the Real Estate Team. He has considerable experience advising clients on all aspects of property law. Brian has successfully guided a number of clients through all stages of property development from the accumulation of sites, through planning, to setting up schemes for management and sale of residential, commercial and retail units. He also advises investors, lending institutions, and receivers in relation to commercial property transactions with a particular emphasis on housing developments. Brian specialises in advising a number of Local Authorities on property matters particularly regarding the large scale acquisition of lands for public projects and recently acted in several schemes to facilitate construction of the national motorway network. He also advises investor clients regarding the acquisition and disposal of commercial property and associated financing. motorway network. Brian also advises investor clients regarding the acquisition and disposal of commercial property and associated financing.

Bryan is Partner-in-Charge of RDJ’s Dublin office, practising across the areas of corporate, commercial and finance. Bryan brings years of transaction insights to our teams, having advised across jurisdictions on mergers, acquisitions, equity investments, restructurings and financings. Focused on bringing all areas of the deal to a close, Bryan delivers results with unrivalled commerciality. Before joining RDJ, Bryan was Chief Legal Officer of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC). His pragmatic and practical steering of IBRC through change and uncertainty led to him being recognised by Legal Business as a Rising Star on its GC Power List and described as “very experienced and practical, with a truly in–depth knowledge of banking law and a good appreciation of the need for clear and prompt instructions”. Bryan was also endorsed as “proving himself robust in steering IBRC through a very difficult period of change and uncertainty” and that “one of his resounding achievements has been his management of internal matters at the bank following the special liquidation of IBRC”. In addition to his in-house experience, Bryan also delivered commercially successful results at leading corporate law firms in London, Sydney and the Cayman Islands.

Cian is a Partner in RDJ’s Banking and Finance group. He practices in a wide range of finance transactions including acquisition finance, real estate and development finance, structured finance, loan portfolio sales and debt restructuring. His main focus is on lending to corporate groups for expansions (whether acquisitions or developments). Cian acts for a number of domestic and international banks, alternative finance providers and non-bank lenders. He also acts for a wide range of corporate borrowers, particularly in the construction and hospitality sectors.

Damian is a Partner, practising as part of our Dispute Resolution team with a particular focus on Insurance defence work. He is a highly skilled and experienced litigator who advises on employer’s liability, public liability, motor, defamation and medical negligence actions for both insured and non insured bodies. Damian also assists the employment law team advising state bodies in relation to a wide variety of matters. Damian’s attention to detail and understanding of our client's objectives, allows him to tailor a litigation strategy to arrive at the best possible outcome for the client. Prior to joining RDJ, Damian worked for one of the UK's leading litigation firms where he successfully defended high-level personal injury actions.

Darryl Broderick

Darryl is the Head of RDJ’s Litigation and Dispute Resolution team and is also a member of the firm’s IP, Media, Insolvency and Corporate Restructuring teams. He has extensive experience in litigation and dispute resolution with a particular emphasis on financial services litigation, contentious media, technology and IP disputes, as well as acting for liquidators and receivers in insolvency related litigation. Darryl is a member of the Irish Society of Insolvency Practitioners. He also represents clients in arbitrations and mediations and he is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

David is a Partner in our Real Estate team. He has extensive experience in all aspects of real estate law and has a proven ability to deal with complex areas of practice. David built his experience across a range of real estate practice areas including development projects, investment acquisitions and disposals, landlord and tenant matters and real estate financing. David’s clients include developers of significant commercial and residential sites, as well as lenders and equity investors funding such development schemes. Prior to joining RDJ in 2015, David worked in the State Property Division of the Chief State Solicitor’s Office where he advised on a wide range of property matters, most notably in relation to asset disposals.

David McCarroll

David is a Partner in the firm’s Employment team. He advises a wide range of private sector med-tech and life science clients on contentious and non-contentious employment matters. David has a particular expertise in advising clients from within the healthcare and education sectors. He has developed a practical and commercially aware approach to the range of issues that arise in those specific sectors such as fixed term work claims, equality claims, disputes arising from public sector and other collective agreements and complex industrial relations disputes and strikes within unionised workforces generally.

Diarmaid is a Partner, practising across the area of Corporate and Commercial and leading our EU & Competition and Research Innovation and Technology practices. He brings a dynamic blend of expertise to the role across a range of commercial transactions, from technology and outsourcing projects to intellectual property and research and development arrangements, as well as advising on mergers and acquisitions, corporate group restructurings, joint ventures and investment transactions. Diarmaid also advises private and public sector clients on a variety of competition law matters including compliance, State Aid and merger control. With expansive insights across industries, Diarmaid delivers well-rounded and insightful solutions to clients. In addition, Diarmaid is an established advisor on knowledge transfer interactions between industry and the research performing community. Advising Knowledge Transfer Ireland, as well as a number of Irish universities and companies, his particular expertise includes State-funded multilateral research collaborative projects between academia and industry, enabling knowledge transfer that empowers focused impact. Diarmaid has also advised extensively on IP licensing arrangements and corporate transactions, such as group restructurings, investments and mergers and acquisitions for technology and IP-focused companies. Prior to joining RDJ, Diarmaid worked with a Magic Circle law firm in London and Brussels, advising on merger notifications before the European Commission and the UK Office of Fair Trading (now the Competition and Markets Authority) as well as on cartel and abuse of dominance cases.

Donal is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution team. He has extensive experience of professional indemnity disputes and commercial litigation, including judicial reviews. In particular, he advises insurers in the Irish Professional Indemnity market in respect of claims brought against various professionals including solicitors, architects, engineers, accountants and tax advisors. Donal has experience of all court jurisdictions, including the Commercial Court. In addition, Donal has been involved with and advises on the various methods of alternative dispute resolution, including conciliation, mediation and arbitration, arising from both construction and non-construction related disputes. Donal also advises both Insurers and commercial clients in relation to investigations and prosecutions brought by various statutory bodies including the Health & Safety Authority, the Environmental Protection Agency and Inland Fisheries Ireland. Donal is the Partner in Charge of RDJ’s Trainee and Intern Programme.

Eoin is Head of RDJ’s Private Client Services practice. He is a qualified solicitor and Chartered Tax Advisor. Eoin works with individuals, families and business owners in the areas of succession planning, probate, and trusts. He also works with clients to develop and implement legal and tax plans that are uniquely tailored to their personal and financial goals. Eoin maintains a broad-based practice that covers all aspects of estate and individual planning, including wealth transfer strategies, multi-generational estate planning designs, and charitable giving. He works with different generational levels of many families, helping to develop and implement strategies for all stages in life. Eoin has lectured Advanced Direct Taxes for the Irish Tax Institute since 2012. He also co-authored the Irish Tax Institute Advanced Taxes Student Manual for a number of years. He has lectured for University College Cork and the Law Society and has been a contributor to the Irish Tax Review. Eoin is Chairperson of the Mercy University Hospital Foundation.

Evin is head of our highly-regarded Real Estate team. He specialises in property development and investment across residential (both traditional, social and PRS schemes) and commercial sectors. He advises a broad range of clients including developers, financial institutions, government agencies and investors. Clients value his commercial approach to transactions and his ability to navigate complex and diverse legal issues to ensure the best commercial outcomes. Evin spent four years as Senior Legal Advisor in the National Asset Management Agency where he advised on large-scale portfolio loan sales, debt restructures, development financing, stapled-financing, insolvency and multi-jurisdictional enforcements.

Fergal is head of the RDJ Healthcare Unit in the Munster area. He acts for both public health systems and private health systems instructed by both the State Claims Agency Clinical Indemnity Scheme and private insurers such as Allianz, Travelers Insurance Company (formerly St. Pauls) , Berkshire Hathaway representing both public and private hospitals from Wexford south to Cork and west to Limerick and all points in between. Fergal also represents intellectual disability organisations and institutions, private insurers in relation to alternative healthcare professionals from acupuncturists to counsellors and also represents pharmacies and physiotherapists. Fergal is a member of the UCC Medical Ethics Committee.

Finola McCarthy

Finola Heads RDJ’s procurement and construction teams. She has vast experience in all types of development, construction and engineering projects both public and private sector from initial procurement through to dispute resolution. Finola is experienced in all principal forms of contract used in design build, EPC, construction, infrastructure and energy projects such as FIDIC, RIAI, IEI, government public works and several bespoke forms. Finola has extensive experience in advising local authorities and other public bodies on all aspects of public procurement and administrative law issues. Her practice includes environmental law and related project issues including health and safety and planning. She is Member of the Irish Environmental Law Association; Procurement Lawyers Association; Irish Society of European Law and Adjudication Society. She lectures widely at conferences and training workshops and is frequently published in construction industry publications. Recognised as a leading environment lawyer in Ireland - Who's Who Legal

Gillian Keating

Gillian Keating leads RDJ’s Corporate and Commercial Department with over 25 years’ experience driving complex and high value M&A transactions. Gillian is ranked in Legal 500 and Chambers for her transaction and advisory work “a very strong practitioner, very good to deal with and very practical” Chambers 2022. Gillian is an Adjunct Professor in the College of Business and Law at University College Cork (UCC) and in 2017 received an Alumni Achievement Award from UCC. Gillian is a board member of Port of Cork Company and Chairs the Board of the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital. Gillian is a co-founder of the highly successful and award winning I WISH (Inspiring Women in Stem) social enterprise. I WISH is an initiative to inspire young women to consider careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) and in this way help address the skills gap in STEM www.iwish.ie. Over 50,000 female students from 28 countries have to date (2022) participated in the I Wish showcase events and campus weeks. From 2013 to 2019, Gillian was a member of the Governing Body of UCC and chaired the Audit Committee. Gillian is a past president of Cork Chamber of Commerce. Gillian encourages the corporate and commercial team at RDJ to continuously seek out and implement better ways of doing business that help drive our clients’ businesses forward.

Imelda is a Partner, practising as part of the Healthcare Litigation team. She advises clients on all forms of legal disputes with a current particular emphasis on medical malpractice actions on behalf of hospitals and healthcare professionals including regularly acting as the advocate for clinicians and hospitals at Inquests. Imelda has advised clients on all aspects of healthcare provision both contentious and non-contentious and was previously a member of a hospital ethics committee. She has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in all courts including the commercial division of the High Court and frequently acts in the defence of high value and sensitive clinical negligence claims. Imelda is a CEDR accredited mediator and is a strong advocate of alternative dispute resolution. Imelda encourages clients to engage in the mediation process where appropriate and she frequently represents both healthcare and non-healthcare clients in mediation.

As Managing Partner, Jamie is responsible for the management and strategic growth of RDJ. He chairs the firm’s Management Group and oversees client development and acquisition of new talent. Prior to becoming Managing Partner, Jamie served as partner in charge of RDJ’s Dublin office. Jamie advises on a wide range of commercial disputes representing clients before the superior Courts. He specialises in professional indemnity defence work in relation to the full range of professions including solicitors, accountants, architects and engineers, as well as restructurings, receiverships, examinerships and liquidations. With sharp cross-sectoral insights, Jamie is driven to deliver the best for all stakeholders.

Jennifer Noctor

As an experienced Litigation and Dispute Resolution practitioner Jennifer Noctor plays a key role in the department advising RDJ’s clients in the area of cyber security and data protection in addition to complex large loss commercial and technology based litigation. Jennifer is a member of the firm’s Cyber and Data Protection team and advises companies and state bodies on a broad range of data protection and privacy issues, including data protection litigation, regulatory investigations, data subjects’ rights, in particular advising and managing large data subject access requests. Jennifer is also part of the Security Incident Response Team and is responsible for assisting clients and advising them throughout the management and investigation of cyber security incidents. She leads and manages large scale data reviews and advises on notifications to the Data Protection Commission, Data Controllers and Data Subjects and how to minimise the impacts of a security incidents. Jennifer is a lead in the Education Team and has expertise advising educational bodies in relation to their implementation and compliance with data protection law. This includes advice on data subject access requests, data sharing, and all data protection and privacy issues within an educational context.

Jennifer Cashman

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.

Jenny is a Partner practising in RDJ'S Healthcare Litigation team. She advises clients in the defence of medical negligence claims acting for both public and private hospitals, instructed by the State Claims Agency and private insurers. She specialises in managing high value and complex cerebral palsy birth claims and catastrophic injury claims and has represented several hospitals and clinicians in these claims advising on all matters including liability, quantum, interim payments, and the rate of return. Jenny also has extensive experience in the management of mass action medical litigation claims. She assisted in the management of the Cervical Check screening mass action during her time in the NTMA. In addition to these claims, she has managed several fast-track delayed diagnosis claims which were case managed by the High Court. She also represents state authorities and healthcare practitioners in the Superior Courts, and the Circuit Court. She also represents healthcare practitioners at Coroner’s Inquests. In non-contentious matters, Jenny has advised the Health Service Executive and healthcare practitioners in relation to indemnity cover and contracts, internal and external reviews, and data protection. She is an active member of the DSBA Litigation Committee and regularly writes articles for the Parchment. Jenny is a CEDR accredited Mediator and is an advocate for Mediation. She has acted in many successful Mediations.

John is Head of the Real Estate Group. He advises clients on all aspects of acquisitions and sales of commercial properties. John has a deep understanding of the issues that arise in complex property transactions across a range of areas including the office, retail and hotel sectors. John has extensive transaction management experience having headed up the legal teams in a number of large scale loan sale transactions and other legal projects including property portfolio sales and purchases. John was Managing Partner of RDJ for eleven years from 2001 to 2012.

John is Head of RDJ’s Tax Practice and specialises in the provision of corporate and business tax advice to corporates and individuals. He has advised on all aspects of Irish direct and indirect taxation for companies and individuals and has significant experience in the areas of corporate restructuring, property development and investment transactions and restructuring, remuneration strategies and tax structuring of businesses in Ireland. John also has extensive experience in taking of tax appeals before the Tax Appeal Commission and the High Court. John has lectured extensively and presented seminars on various tax matters for the Irish Tax Institute and the Law Society of Ireland and is the current Chairman of the Taxation Committee of Law Society of Ireland. He was co-author of the Institute publication on the Irish Finance Act (FINAK) from 2008 to 2014. He is also a member of the taxation committee of the CCBE (Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe).

JP is Partner-in-Charge of RDJ's Galway office, practising as part of the Corporate and Commercial team. He represents a broad range of clients, both indigenous and multinational. JP’s core areas of practice include mergers and acquisitions, re-organisations, corporate and commercial, intellectual property and corporate finance. JP's clients include private equity and venture capital investors, public bodies and market leading indigenous and multinational companies. He has particular expertise in the Medtech sector representing numerous clients in the Galway Medtech cluster. JP is past President of the Galway Chamber of Commerce.

Lisa is a Partner, practising in the firm’s Dispute Resolution team, with a particular focus on professional indemnity litigation. She is involved in providing both companies and individuals with advice in all areas of inter-company disputes. She has advised clients on a broad spectrum of issues including the resolution of large scale property disputes, professional negligence, breach of contract, injunctions and insolvency/debt collection. Lisa also regularly represents clients before the Courts at all levels, including the Commercial Court, the High Court and the Court of Appeal as well as in alternative dispute resolution processes including mediation, arbitration and regulatory investigations.

Louise is a Partner, practising as part of our Dispute Resolution team and heads up our specialised fraud unit. She has significant experience advising on motor, employers’ and public liability as well as indemnity claims for both insured and self-insured bodies. In addition to an extensive practice in general litigation (across all Court levels), Louise has designed and created strategic strategies for the prevention and detection of fraudulent claims for major Insurers and has a significant success rate in the defence of fraudulent and exaggerated claims. Louise also works for the large loss and complex team of a leading Insurer advising on quantum, assessing and advising on liability and preparing cases for hearing. Outside the firm, Louise is a member of the Southern Law Association and a member of the Litigation and CPD Sub-Committees of the Southern Law Association. Louise is also the Chair of RDJ’s Wellness Team and has been trained in professional development and coaching.

Louise Boughton

Louise is part of the firm’s Dispute Resolution team, specialising in the area of defence litigation. She has extensive experience advising both public and private sector clients. Louise has advised and defended State Authorities in relation to liability claims initiated against the State in the Circuit Court, High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. She has brought her extensive experience from working for the State Claims Agency to the private sector and advises self - insured entities and insurers in both the Irish and UK jurisdiction.

Margaret is a Partner, practising as part of our Real Estate team. She advises on all aspects of property law with a particular emphasis on the development, sale and purchase of commercial property projects throughout the country. Margaret is also recognised as one of the country’s leading lawyers in the commercial letting area. Her experience in this field includes work on the development, sale and purchase of commercial property projects throughout the country as well as advice to vendors, purchasers, developers, landlords and tenants of commercial property (investment and development), large and small. Margaret has acted for developers and tenants in numerous office and retail developments across the country including Liffey Valley shopping Centre, Mahon Point Shopping Centre, Mahon Retail Park, Opera Lane and Half Moon Street, The Capitol, 85 South Mall, Cork and is currently acting in the letting of Navigation Square and Penrose Dock, Cork. She has advised on many hotel transactions including Fota Island Resort, Castlemartyr, Tulfarris, The Anner, The McWilliam and The Connemara Coast Hotel. Margaret recently acted in the acquisition of the Webworks building on behalf of a German fund

Marianne Lonergan

Marianne is a Partner, practising as part of the Dispute Resolution team. She specialises in advising clients in respect of commercial litigation and alternative dispute resolution, corporate governance, intellectual property and information technology, product liability and in respect of insurance led professional indemnity claims. Having worked for a number of years in the firm’s Commercial and Corporate Department, Marianne is well placed in respect of company law based disputes. She is involved in providing advice to both corporate entities and individuals on all aspects of inter-company disputes, with a particular focus on shareholder/partnership, contractual and product liability disputes. She has extensive experience of the Courts at all levels with a particular focus on High Court (including Commercial Court) and tribunals of enquiry. Marianne had the opportunity to recently provide exclusive legal services to a Third Level Institution on a full time basis which, in association with her previous experience she advised extensively in respect of complex IP issues and Agreements.

Marie is a Partner, practising as part of the firm’s Corporate and Commercial team. She has extensive experience advising corporate and institutional clients on corporate transactions and company law. On the transaction side, Marie has advised companies and both private and venture capital investors on investment projects and equity fundraising. She has extensive experience in advising the research performing community on collaborative research generally to include advices on appropriate contractual frameworks for the establishment of research centres and advices on multi-lateral collaborative research projects taking into account state aid considerations and funding party requirements. Marie also regularly advices industry parties on knowledge transfer transactions to include IP licensing arrangements, patent assignments and participation in research consortia generally.

Mark is a Chartered Tax Adviser, practising as part of the Tax team. He advises Irish and international clients on a broad range of tax matters. Mark has extensive experience in advising international companies establishing in Ireland and Irish companies setting up operations overseas, and has a developed a wide professional network with tax advisers internationally. Mark works closely with the Corporate team on M&A transactions and has advised many individuals and families on succession and estate planning. He has extensive experience in advising clients and individuals on all aspects of interaction with the Revenue Commissioners, and in particular on Revenue audits and investigations. Mark is co-author of the Irish Tax Institute’s publication “Revenue Audits and Investigations – the Professional Handbook”. Mark is a past President of the Irish Tax Institute and a member and past chairman of Main TALC, the national liaison body between tax practitioners and Revenue in Ireland. He is a member of the regulatory investigation committee of the Institute. He is also a member of the Taxation Working Group of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland. Mark has also presented at many tax conferences nationally and internationally on a variety of subjects. He has contributed several articles to the Irish Tax Review and other publications on a wide number of tax matters.

Mary is a Partner, practising as part of the Dispute Resolution team. She is a highly skilled litigator with experience, in both public and private practice, in all aspects of defence litigation, to include EL, PL, Bullying and Harassment, Defamation, Property Damage, RTA’s and Product Liability, at all court levels, across all court circuits. Mary has extensive experience in the provision of in-house services and in dealing with insurance companies and self-insured entities in Ireland and the UK. She has advised in all areas of defence litigation, to include Casualty- personal injuries/fatalities in the areas of employer’s liability, public liability and RTA’S, product liability, professional and medical negligence, property damage, defamation, dispute resolution, arbitration and insurance indemnity.

Michael Quinlan

Michael is a Partner, practising in the firm’s Dispute Resolution team. He specialises in dispute resolution and insolvency and corporate restructuring. His core areas of practice are commercial litigation including corporate and personal insolvency, insurance defence litigation and corporate and shareholder disputes. Michael represents a board range of national and international clients, in the private and public sectors, in all aspects of contentious litigation (including contentious insolvency litigation) in Court, as well as in alternative dispute resolution processes including mediation, arbitration and regulatory investigations. He also advises in the areas of data protection, financial services regulation and compliance. Prior to joining RDJ, Michael worked in the Department of Finance and the Central Bank of Ireland as a legal and policy analyst. In that role he focused on financial regulation and legislative and policy development. He contributed to the achievement of key targets under the EU/IMF Programme of Financial Support for Ireland including developing legislation for the restructuring of the credit union sector in Ireland and the establishment of the Credit Union Restructuring Board (ReBo). Michael is a member of the Irish Society of Insolvency Practitioners (ISIP). He holds a professional certificate in Compliance from the Institute of Banking and a diploma in Corporate Law and Governance from the Law Society of Ireland. Michael also holds a practitioners’ certificate in data protection law.

Michelle is a Partner within the firm’s Employment team. She has wide ranging experience advising on all aspects of employment law. Michelle also has built specialist expertise in Data Protection and Privacy issues and is a member of the Firm’s Cyber and Data Protection Team. Michelle's daily work involves providing strategic HR and employment law advice and support to her clients in the technology, pharmaceutical, charity/not for profit, healthcare and hospitality sectors, on issues including drafting contracts and policies and procedures; termination of employment, including redundancies; the conduct of internal investigations; performance management; transfer of undertakings; equality; work permits and intra-company transfers; issues associated with contingent workers; whistleblowing issues; organisation of working time; industrial relations; protective leave; severance agreements; sexual harassment and bullying and harassment. Michelle provides ongoing advice to multi-national and indigenous companies on their Data Protection obligations under the current legislative framework (including codes of practice and guidance from the Data Protection Commissioner) and identifying gaps against the new General Data Protection Regulation. Michelle is working with many clients to put in place remediation plans to achieve GDPR compliance, including reviewing existing privacy notices, data privacy policies and data transfer agreements. Michelle also provides commercially focused advices to her clients on data privacy matters such as data breaches, liaising with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, trans-border data flows, subject access requests and pre-employment screening and litigation arising from data privacy issues. Michelle is also recognised for having considerable experience in contentious matters and regularly represents clients before the courts, Workplace Relations Commission and Labour Court. She also provides in-house training and information sessions for clients on areas such as grievance and disciplinary procedures, performance management, whistleblowing and GDPR.

Padraic Brennan

Padraic is a Partner, practising in the firm’s Dispute Resolution team with an emphasis on medical negligence defence litigation, healthcare law and administrative law. He has represented the (former) Western Health Board/Health Service Executive on healthcare, medico-legal/ethical, child protection, disability and special needs issues. Padraic also represented the interests of the (former) WHB at the Lindsay Tribunal and the Organ Retention Inquiry. He has twenty three years experience in defending medical negligence claims on behalf of the State Claims Agency, Irish Public Bodies and St Paul’s/Travelers. He has acted in a large number of cases including catastrophic birth injury cases, cases involving alleged misdiagnosis of cancer and acquired brain injuries. He has represented various healthcare institutions at coroners inquests, frequently without the assistance of counsel. Padraic also has significant experience gained over a long number of years in representing healthcare institutions on medico-legal matters including the refusal to accept blood transfusions, the right to die, the right to refuse medical treatment, consent/informed consent issues, capacity to make informed decisions on healthcare options, and the care of patients with eating disorders refusing treatment. Padraic has been a legal adviser to NUI Galway for over twenty years, in particular, in the areas of employment law, administrative law, freedom of information, data protection, and corporate governance. He also serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Law in NUI Galway.

Pat is a Partner in the firm's Real Estate practice. He has a particular focus on commercial property transactions and regularly advises clients on acquisition/sale and development of retail, commercial and mixed use schemes, and the identification and resolution of key relevant issues. More recently, Pat’s work has related to security reviews, and the carrying out of due diligence from the borrowers, receivers, vendors and potential purchaser’s viewpoints in relation to assets/loan sales, as well as acting in the disposal of secured properties and secured loans. Pat focuses on achieving pragmatic results for his clients, delivering value through efficient management of the legal process. His extensive experience in this field includes work on the development, sale/purchase and general advices on commercial property projects throughout the country as well as advice to vendors, purchasers, receivers, banks, developers, landlords and tenants as regards commercial property (investment and development), and on renewable energy projects.

Peter is a Partner, practising as part of the Healthcare Litigation team. He has extensive experience in handling complex high value claims, including professional negligence and clinical negligence and acts on behalf of a number of leading indemnifiers. Peter provides specialist advices on Inquest hearings and Professional Medical complaints to a range of healthcare clients and also represents a number of Nursing Home Facilities. Peter has been involved in advising Statutory Bodies on the issues of Administrative Law, Child Law and Education Law in the context of children’s rights. Prior to joining RDJ, he developed a dual experience in Criminal and Family Law. He was Former President of the Southern Law Association (2014-2015), Council Member of the Law Society of Ireland (2013 -2016) and currently sits on the Law Society Client Complaints and Relations Committee.

Peter is a Partner, practising as part of the Dispute Resolution Team. He is a highly experienced commercial litigator, specialising in dispute resolution both in the defence of insurance claims and providing specific insurance advice to all of the major underwriters in the Irish market as well as to a significant number of Lloyds Syndicates in Ireland. Peter's main area of practice is aviation liability claims where he advises on passengers' claims, public liability and employer's liability for all of the major airlines operating within the Republic of Ireland. Peter also has in depth experience advising on a broad range of disputes related to the construction and financial services sectors.

Richard is a partner in RDJ’s Dispute Resolution team. Currently ranked as an ‘Eminent Practitioner’ in both Chambers Europe and Chambers Global, Richard has been involved in a wide range of commercial and corporate litigation in the Irish and EU courts and in arbitral tribunals across the world. He previously served as Managing Partner of RDJ for ten years from 2012 to 2022. Richard advises on a wide range of corporate and commercial disputes including shareholder disputes, insurance disputes, professional indemnity, planning disputes and in many disputes founded on a wide range of negligence and breach of contract. He has considerable experience in the resolution of large scale complex disputes and has represented clients both in the Irish and European Courts and in national and non-national Arbitral Tribunals. He has extensive experience in the area of Administrative Law, having been involved in many of the leading cases in Judicial Review in the High Court and Supreme Court of Ireland including in the areas of Planning, Public Procurement and various public licensing regimes. Richard is a non Executive Director of the Johnson and Perrott Motor Group, where he is Chair and is also a Director of Cork University Hospital Charity and the Glucksman Gallery in University College Cork. He is also Chair of the Barryscourt Trust, a member of the Board of Management of one of Cork’s largest primary schools and is a Trustee of Cork Cricket Club.

Ricky is a Partner, practising as part of the firm’s Dispute Resolution team. His core areas of practice are Dispute Resolution, Cyber and Data Protection, and Insolvency related litigation. Ricky has broad experience advising a range of foreign, national, multi-national and institutional clients in complex and high value cases in the Corporate, Debt Recovery, Insolvency and Restructuring, Insurance and Professional Risk, and Construction sectors. Ricky co-leads RDJ’s Cyber and Data Protection Group. His experience includes the provision of advice and compliance training to a range of private and public organisations in relation to their implementation and compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018, and the provision of advices in relation to regulatory authority investigations. Ricky leads RDJ’s Security Incident Response Group and has broad experience in the investigation, management and mitigation of cyber security incidents and personal data breaches including the engagement of independent forensic IT consultants, the preparation of security incident reports, notifications to the Data Protection Commission, Data Controllers and Data Subjects, and management of subsequent regulatory authority investigations.

Ronan heads up the firm's Commercial Dispute Resolution team. He and his team represent commercial clients before the superior Courts and also in other forums, including Mediations, Arbitrations, Tribunals and Oral Hearings. He has a recognised expertise in particular in contract disputes, company law disputes, judicial review, landlord & tenant disputes and planning matters. Ronan has been the lead partner on a number of the most prominent Commercial Court shareholder disputes in recent years as well as acting in a number of highly publicised Commercial Court judicial reviews (regarding tenders, planning and State Aid). He also advised a manufacturing client plaintiff in the leading Irish multi-jurisdictional, multi-party product liability case; Clients consistently praise Ronan’s pragmatism in providing the best possible commercial advices and his detailed knowledge of a broad range of legal areas. Clients also comment again and again on his and his team’s tenacity in achieving the best possible outcome for them. He has authored chapters on dispute resolution and product liability in a number of international law publications, is recognised consistently in Legal 500 in the areas of dispute resolution and planning, and is the lead lecturer to the Law Society of Ireland on both the Commercial Court and Mediation. Ronan has been a CEDR accredited Mediator since 2006 and regularly acts for clients in large commercial mediations and other alternative dispute resolution forums.

Ruth is a Partner, practising as part of our Healthcare Litigation team. She specialises in advising on clinical negligence cases, Coroner’s inquests, healthcare inquiries and regulatory matters. Her clients include public and private healthcare enterprises together with clinical, nursing and allied healthcare practitioners. Ruth has represented medical professionals in the defence of clinical negligence claims at High Court, Circuit Court and Court of Appeal hearings on the instructions of their indemnifiers Medical Protection, Allianz and the State Claims Agency. Ruth has also advised medical practitioners in relation to the defence of complaints to the Medical Council and Fitness to Practice proceedings. She represents healthcare practitioners at Coroner’s Inquests. She has also advised practitioners and institutions in relation to internal and external reviews. She has an extensive knowledge of the multiple fora of healthcare inquiries and the regulatory framework within which medical professionals and institutions operate.

Seán is a Partner, practising as part of the firm’s Corporate and Commercial team. He has broad-ranging experience as a corporate lawyer. Seán is well respected as a trusted adviser with a depth of legal knowledge and a pragmatic, result-focussed approach in company, contract and commercial law. On the transactional side, Seán has extensive experience in high value mergers and acquisitions work, including a number of high profile sales and acquisitions in the technology, hospitality and healthcare sectors. Seán regularly advises upon the company law issues arising from and implemented a number of complex group re-organisations. He also frequently advises on equity financing projects and has handled investment work for companies, private investors and venture capital investors. Seán has lectured in contract law and intellectual property law on the LLB course in Griffith College Cork. Seán has had his published work cited with approval by the Irish High Court.

Shane O'Connor is a Partner in RDJ’s Real Estate team. He specialises in advising on construction and procurement matters including initial tendering, contract drafting and negotiation, mid-stream contractual issues, regulatory advices, and all forms of alternative dispute resolution. He has both private practice and in-house experience across Ireland and England in addition to a number of years of pre-qualification experience in the construction industry. Prior to joining RDJ Shane spent almost 6 years with a semi-state utilities provider as the lead legal adviser to a wide range of professionals across some of the largest construction contracts in the state including treatment plants, specialised buildings, and civil engineering projects. He has experience across all principal forms of construction contracts such as FIDIC, RIAI, NEC, government public works, Orgalim, and several bespoke forms including those used by local authorities and semi-state bodies.

Simon is a Partner, practising as part of our Real Estate team. He has particular expertise advising in finance, investment and development transactions. He acts for national house builders, land promoters, land owners, and insolvency practitioners across the country in sales, acquisitions, joint ventures and licence agreements. Simon has extensive experience in advising developers, lenders and equity investors in all aspects of financing, secured lending and property investment. He has also advised on the development of a number of private hospitals. Prior to joining RDJ, Simon was a team leader of the residential development department of NAMA where he was responsible for originating significant facilities for large scale developments and successfully devised novel ways to expedite the delivery of large scale residential projects. Additionally, Simon advised on complex multi-jurisdictional enforcement, restructuring and work-outs.

Tom is a Partner, practising as part of the firm’s Banking and Finance team, specialising in Banking, Real Estate and Company law. He has a strong reputation in the market for his knowledge of Banking and Company law and is highly experienced across a number of different transaction types including tax based and commercial lending structures. Tom advises all of the major Irish Banks, in addition to providing advice to corporate and developer clients in connection with their borrowing and financial requirements. Tom has lectured extensively on company and banking law matters and has over 35 years experience of advising Banks and Financial Institutions on the taking of security for loan facilities of various kinds.

Tomás McDonagh

Tomás is a Partner, practising as part the firm’s Dispute Resolution team, specialising in defence litigation. He has significant experience in all aspects of litigation procedure and practices in all Court jurisdictions. He specialises in the conduct of litigation on behalf of insurance companies and self-insured companies and advises on employer’s liability, public liability, product liability and road traffic matters. Tomás practiced in a leading law firm in the south west of Ireland for a number of years, specialising in insurance defence litigation, prior to joining RDJ

Uilliam Ó Lorcáin

Uilliam is practising as part of the firm’s Dispute Resolution team. He advises both Irish and London based insurers and reinsurers in the areas of professional indemnity insurance, property claims, product liability and policy disputes. Uilliam also advises insurers and corporate clients on all aspects of media and entertainment litigation including defamation and contempt of court. Uilliam has a number of years experience of advising and working in the London Insurance Market. He recently acted for insurers and reinsurers in a landmark Supreme Court case concerning a law firm which dealt with the issue of contributory negligence by lending institutions and its potential impact in a professional negligence case.