Employment

ByrneWallace LLP

The practice at ByrneWallace LLP provides comprehensive coverage across the full range of employment matters, acting for a varied client roster of major domestic and multinational corporations, trade unions and public authorities. Michelle Ní Longáin heads the practice, regularly assisting public bodies with administrative and equality related employment matters. Michael Kennedy is particularly well regarded for handling trade disputes and TUPE-related matters, while Lorraine Smyth assists clients with outsourcing, restructuring and redundancy processes. Other key names of note include immigration expert Emmet Whelan and industrial dispute expert Loughlin Deegan who regularly represents blue-chip clients on contentious and non-contentious matters.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

‘The firm is very experienced and provides sound practical advice that always keeps us on the right path.’
‘Emmet Whelan is excellent. He is consistently clear, decisive, knowledgeable and provides excellent advice to our business. He is also very responsive and available at short notice. We are very satisfied with the service we receive from Emmet.’
‘Loughlin Deegan is an exceptional employment lawyer. He not only provides impeccable legal advice, he is also very practical and an excellent negotiator.’
‘An engaged approach - totally professional and extremely knowledgeable and apply this to best effect by understanding our business and the wider context.’
‘Ciara Ruane - exceptional level of knowledge on employment law and ensures we are fully informed and prepared at all times. She is always responsive and reliably hard-working.’
‘Byrne Wallace fields a vastly experienced team with great strength and breadth at all levels and across all aspects of employment law, very well supported by experienced colleagues from other disciplines, allowing the employment practice to operate as a technically expert one-stop shop. The firm is extremely well tuned in to international labour law developments and at the cutting edge of Irish employment law.’
‘Lorraine Smyth is a stellar employment lawyer. She has a huge wealth of legal knowledge and experience and is a wonderfully personable but steely negotiator who has a phenomenal ability to zone in on the key issues and always keeps the end game in sight. Ever the pragmatist, Lorraine never sugarcoates reality and tells a client exactly where they stand and what they need to know. Her technical ability to argue a case is second to none and she is a brilliant legal drafter who is very much appreciated, both by lawyers and non-legal colleagues.’
‘The employment team in Byrne Wallace have a deep knowledge and experience on all elements of employment disputes. They are responsive and organised and provide pragmatic and commercially sound advice to ensure the best outcome for the client. Excellent all round.’

Key clients

The Irish Civil Service
CRH plc
The Irish Times
The Law Society of Ireland
Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland
Local Government Management Agency
Smurfit Kappa
The Central Bank of Ireland
The Irish Prison Service
Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency

Work highlights

Represented the successful party in a Supreme Court case which gave rise to the definitive statement of Irish law as it relates to suspension in the employment context.
Advised the Irish Civil Service on Ireland’s significantly revised “whistleblowing” regime and providing training across the Civil Service under contract to the Irish Government.
Represented the Irish Courts Service in successful defences of numerous claims of discrimination in respect of termination of employment of employees on probationary and fixed term contracts.

Lawyers

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