About

With nine lawyers and one company secretary, Vodafone Ireland’s in-house legal function has grown significantly in recent years, as the company continues to innovate in new markets and technologies. Supported by Sarah O Gorman, the company’s general counsel and company secretary, Vodafone continues to develop its digital agenda and is playing a leading role in pioneering a Gigabit society for Ireland. Vodafone’s continued focus is on its customers and in ensuring that they have the best network in Ireland for their connectivity needs, supported by super-fast broadband speeds delivered by SIRO, Vodafone’s joint venture with the ESB. The company recently in-sourced its network subsidiary Netshare, consolidating all network knowledge and capabilities at its headquarters in Leopardstown. The legal team play a critical role in supporting the company’s strategic projects, which include the successful recent participation in ComReg’s Spectrum auction, which ensures that the company has sufficient spectrum into the future to meet its growing needs and to ensure 5G capabilities. Innovation is also at the core of Vodafone’s activities and the legal team were central to the roll out of a new suite of Internet of Things consumer products including V-bag, V-auto, V-camera and V-Pet. The legal team lead complex contract negotiations for Vodafone’s increasingly bespoke offerings to its corporate enterprise customers across both the public and private sector and has specialised lawyers who support those negotiations. O’Gorman says the focus for the coming year is on the continued digital transformation within the company, supporting the multi-million transformation programme called Equinox which will help further develop Vodafone’s digital, tailored offering to its customers. She notes on the corporate social responsibility side, the company is very proud of its focus on sustainability, its charitable relationship with Childline and its sponsorship of Irish rugby.