Eavan Saunders, previously a senior partner at William Fry as well as global law firm Ashurst, will be managing partner of the Dublin office, while Peter O’Brien, currently a senior finance and capital markets partner at Matheson, will become chair.

The Dublin office will be “fully operational” from the second quarter of 2020 and will initially focus on transactional work for clients, particularly in the financial services, real estate, energy, infrastructure and technology sectors.

Global CEO Elliott Portnoy said: “Ireland is a priority market for many of our clients. However, many of the strongest firms in Ireland rely on referrals from firms outside of London. That is why we are opening our own office rather than combining with another firm at this time.”