‘Economic indicators are extraordinarily strong’

ACTIVITY Trading remained strong in 2022 and we saw our revenue grow by circa 8% to €106m, driven by robust growth across all of our key sectors. We saw particularly strong growth in financial services across structured finance, financial services regulatory and aviation finance, acting for clients such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland.

Our leading practice in the technology sector also remained buoyant. We advised clients such as Meta, Etsy, WhatsApp, Kinzen and Instagram across all their advisory, regulation and transactional needs. Life sciences and healthcare work increased, particularly in the areas of regulation and litigation, advising clients such as Biohaven Pharmaceuticals and LetsGetChecked.

The renewable energy sector continued to generate significant levels of legal work, in areas such as solar, onshore wind and offshore wind energy generation projects. SSE and EirGrid remain longstanding clients of the firm. We continued and increased our investment in growing practice areas including Insurance Regulation, ESG, Product Liability and Artificial Intelligence, which reflected the growing client demand in these areas. We have also invested significantly in our Tax practice, where we see continued demand from both our international and domestic clients.

OUTLOOK Commentary suggests there may be further interest rate increases in the following three months, possibly with a levelling off towards the end of the summer. If that turns out to be the case there is likely to be continued caution by investors and business leaders on making big investment decisions. As soon as the levelling off signals emerge from central banks, there is likely to be a material surge of activity, pointing towards a busy second half of 2023.

Ireland’s fundamental economic indicators are extraordinarily strong at the moment. Record budget surpluses and buoyant employment provide a very significant safety net to any potential slowdown in 2023. Despite the strong fundamentals, Ireland is still a relatively small, open, economy exposed to the fluctuations in regional and global economic conditions. Until the wider risk factors such as interest rates and geopolitical turmoil level off, we are facing an uncertain outlook, but one we feel confident we can navigate.