Mason Hayes & Curran’s revenue rises 8% to breach €100m milestone

Irish law firm Mason Hayes & Curran breached the €100 million milestone in revenues for the first time last year after recording growth of 8 per cent.

Results provided to The Irish Times show that the firm’s revenues increased to €106 million in 2022, up from €98 million a year earlier. Partner numbers climbed from 93 to 106 while the total staff count rose from 538 to 570 as work for both domestic and international clients grew.

Looking to the current year, recently appointed managing partner Will Carmody said MHC was budgeting for an increase in revenue of between 7 and 9 per cent.

“Looking at the early numbers, it’s quite consistent with the equivalent period of last year. So we’d be confident and are projecting that we would grow again in high single-digit figures this year,” he said. “We are paying close attention to all the economic indicators of course but it doesn’t cause us worry or concern to the extent that we wouldn’t be able to grow the business this year. We’re budgeting for 7-9 per cent [growth] range this year. It’s ambitious but you have to be ambitious.”

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[ Mason Hayes & Curran names Will Carmody as managing partner ]

[ Law firm Mason Hayes & Curran posts 23% surge in fee income to €98m ]

Mr Carmody also wants the firm to increase its presence in London, New York and San Francisco, where it already has operations. “Our international focus is something that I would hope we can continue to broaden. We see a lot of opportunities for the firm there and it’s a counterpoint to the arrival of a number of international law firms in Ireland. We’d like to broaden our numbers and the level of activity in each location.”

The firm is also reviewing its office accommodation options in Dublin, including either additional space to supplement its current location on Barrow Street in Dublin 2 or a new consolidated headquarters location.

Looking back at 2022, the firm said there was “particularly strong growth” in financial services work across structured finance, transactional work such as loan portfolio sales, and international and domestic financing.

Key transactions included advising AIB on the sale of a non-performing loan portfolio known as Project Sycamore to a consortium led by Cerberus and LCM Partners. It also acted for Citibank as an agent for a syndicate of banks, in connection with a $28.5 billion senior unsecured bridge loan facility for Amgen used to pay a portion of the cash consideration for its €26.8 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics.

Work in the technology sector also increased. It advised Meta subsidiaries Instagram and WhatsApp on regulatory engagements in the European Union and on various GDPR compliance issues. It was also an adviser on the sale of Kinzen to Spotify.

[ Data Protection Commission fines WhatsApp additional €5.5m over GDPR breach ]

MHC also had a busy year with life sciences and healthcare work. It advised the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street, on its proposed €300 million co-location on the campus of St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin 4. The firm also assisted Biohaven Pharmaceuticals on the Irish law aspects of certain matters, including the sale of its migraine business to Pfizer in a transaction valued at $11.6 billion.

[ Pfizer to buy biotech group BioHaven for €11 billion ]

The energy sector generated “significant levels” of legal work, with a focus on renewables. It advised SSE on all aspects of the offshore lease, consenting, development and procurement of Phase II of the Arklow Bank Wind Farm.

In property, there was a “high level of transactional activity”. The firm advised TikTok on one of the largest office-leasing deals in Ireland in recent years, and acted for BNP Paribas REIM in the acquisition of the Staycity Aparthotel and the sale of Airbnb headquarters at Hanover Quay in Dublin 2.