About

Irish financial services specialist FEXCO handles some of the most sophisticated transactions emanating from the local market, spanning Europe, Asia Pacific, the US and the Middle East. ‘An exemplary in-house lawyer’, Eleanor Daly has ‘first-class technical acumen’, ‘deep commercial understanding of FEXCO’s business’, ‘willingness to take measured risks’ and a superior understanding of cross-border transactions. ‘I have been very impressed by Eleanor’, says one lawyer. ‘She is commercially very astute, has excellent attention to detail and is very pleasant and fair to deal with’. Managing a sizeable share of work in house, Daly leads a highly skilled in-house team, and is credited with significantly reducing the business’s legal spend. She herself counts her role in purchasing listed Japanese property management company NIPPON KANZAI Co as a personal highlight. This transaction became the first winner of the Irish Legal Awards’ International Transaction of the Year, managed by an in-house legal department. ‘The award gave recognition and validation to the work of the department both internally and within the broader legal community in Ireland’, Daly says. ‘There are few other sources for that type of “good news story” for an in-house legal function, so the award was particularly special’. Daly has worked in FEXCO’s function since 2004 and became GC in 2011. Appointed to statutory advisory body, Company Law Review Group, in 2014, Daly is prominent within Ireland’s Law Society and co-authored The Irish Company Secretary’s Handbook, published in 2011. ‘I believe very strongly that in-house lawyers need to make themselves heard within the larger legal community’, Daly says. ‘It is important to use all the available opportunities to engage and network with other lawyers from outside your organisation to keep in touch with developments in law and also within the profession’. During her time as FEXCO’s GC, Daly has made sizeable changes to the function and has championed individual development and further study. ‘I am constantly looking to innovate the processes which the legal department is engaged in to improve efficiencies and to empower our commercial colleagues’, she says. ‘Furthermore, I am absolutely committed to department staff’s ongoing education (both qualified and support staff) to ensure they are developing their own professional skills and contributing at the highest level possible’. When it comes to outside counsel, Daly feels ‘collaboration’ is key. ‘Our most successful engagements with outside counsel occur when outside counsel is willing to recognise that they need to work “hand in glove” with FEXCO Group’s lawyers’.