Matheson appoints Mason Hayes & Curran partner

Matheson appoints Mason Hayes & Curran partner

While Niall Collins moves to Dublin, Karen Sheil joins as real estate partner from William Fry

To grow its competition and real estate practices in Dublin, Matheson has added two partners from rival Irish firms.

As head of the EU, competition and regulatory department, Niall Collins joins from Mason Hayes & Curran, while Karen Sheil joins from William Fry as a commercial property partner.

In the past 11 years, Collins worked for Mason Hayes. He was a partner there for six years. Specifically, he provides advice on Irish and EU competition law to multinationals and Irish companies across a wide range of business sectors, including energy, media entertainment, insurance, agriculture, food, technology, sport and financial services.

Matthew Collins will be Matheson's head of the firm's EU, competition and regulatory practice. He will work with partners Kate McKenna and Calum Warren who are members of the Dublin office.

The firm's Sheil specializes in real estate development and investment transactions. According to her LinkedIn profile, she worked for William Fry for 14 years.

Among her colleagues at Matheson are Sally Anne Stone, Brian Doran, Leonie Dunne and Cillian O'Boyle, who are all part of the firm's commercial real estate team.

Managing partner Michael Jackson said their experience in dealing with transactions and knowledge of Irish and international markets would boost Matheson's real estate and EU competition practices.

In addition to the firm's recent appointment of two corporate partners in London and New York - Sandra Lord and David Jones - Jackson pointed to the firm's relocation of its 35-lawyer office to an environmentally friendly space in Cork in April as further signs of the firm's commitment to its network of talent.

A&L Goodbody, DLA Piper, KMPG Ireland and Accenture were also hired by Matheson as part of a string of hirings for the technology, data and regulatory teams last year to keep pace with the rapid change affecting the IT, data privacy and regulatory sectors.

In Matheson's partnership promotions round this year, thirteen new partners were promoted, bringing the firm's total head count to 105 and securing its position as Ireland's largest law firm by headcount. Four woman were selected this year (30 percent) in the firm's eight-strong round. Five women (67 percent) were selected last year.

As part of the post-Brexit sanctions on UK-based lawyers practicing EU law from Ireland without a physical presence, Collins and Sheil have joined Matheson at a time when international law firms are looking to establish a presence in Dublin.

Dentons hired three new partners at its Dublin office last month from Allen & Overy, Shearman & Sterling and Gilbert + Tobin. This comes in the wake of lateral hires made from top local firms, including Matheson and William Fry and the office was launched in 2020.

It was announced in March that offshore firm Ogier had entered into a merger with eight-partner Dublin firm Leman, which at the time was an unprecedented move into an onshore market, just one month after UK firm Addleshaw Goddard merged with 25-partner Dublin firm Eugene F Collins.

Also in February 2022, Bird & Bird announced it would open an office in Dublin, joining firms such as Burges Salmon, Ashurst, Hogan Lovells and Taylor Wessing who have already opened offices elsewhere.