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'Costs and regulation driving Irish mergers'

The head of international law firm Simmons & Simmons in Ireland has told a legal podcast that the firm is looking at where it can grow in Ireland.

Rachel Stanton told the Fifth Court Podcast, recorded during the Law Society’s recent Future of Legal Practice Summit, that the firm was “in growth mode”, and was watching the recent round of mergers in the legal sector with interest.

James Duggan (managing partner, Flynn O’Driscoll) also told the podcast that his firm, which recently merged with Vincent & Beatty, wanted to remain an independent, domestic-focused business, despite international interest.

Synergies

Asked about the factors behind increased consolidation in the market, Duggan told the podcast that more regulation and higher costs meant that there were increased synergies from becoming a larger firm.

He added that bolting on existing specialist practices was much quicker than building a new practice from scratch within a firm.

Stanton said that it was inevitable that international firms would look at Ireland, due to the presence of multi-nationals, but Brexit had accelerated that process.

Legal partnerships

Late last year, Simmons & Simmons became the first firm to form a solicitor-barrister legal partnership under a new regulatory framework.

Stanton said that the concept was not new, and that this was how practices operated internationally. She added that the firm had already brought in one barrister.

Stanton also told the podcast that more mergers were “inevitable” and predicted that there would be more ‘boutique’ firms specialising in particular areas of law.

During the first part of the podcast, now available to download, the two lawyers also outlined their paths to their current roles and discussed the importance of acquiring the “critical” leadership skills involved in running a law firm.