Mason Hayes and Curran’s revenue rises 8% to €131m

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Turnover at leading Irish law firm Mason Hayes and Curran rose by 8 per cent to €131.5 million last year, on the back of “robust demand for specialist legal advice”.

This means that the firm’s revenues have risen by about a third since 2021, when it recorded fee income of €98 million.

Managing partner Will Carmody told The Irish Times the revenue growth occurred “across all the practice areas particularly a pickup in the transactional areas, corporate and financial services, which for the previous couple of years were lagging a small bit.

“In the second half of the year in particular, once the tariff deals got done in the early summer, we saw a pick up in transactional activity and corporate M&A,” he said.

Carmody said greater regulatory scrutiny also drove client demand for legal services.

On the use of AI at the firm, Carmody said a “test-and-pilot phase” was under way for the use of an AI model. “We haven’t plumped yet for any particular big investment but we are probably likely to do that this year,” he said.

He said the firm did not expect AI advances to reduce its headcount and said it plans to double the number of graduates and trainees (from 30 to about 60) it takes on.

“We don’t see it reducing the total number of staff we have or the number of legal graduates or trainees that we are taking on. We see AI as more a productivity or efficiency tool rather than a rationalisation tool.

“We are likely to nearly double our trainee intake next year to that of last year. That’s a strategic decision we’ve taken in the past 12 months and its driven by where we see the growth opportunities across the practice areas over the next two to three years.”

He cited planned infrastructure investment here over the coming years as a driver of growth.

“The announcements that have been made over the past couple of years, we’re seeing that feed through now into investment decisions and clients coming to us. The obvious one being house building and accommodation generally but also transport, health, education, investment in water and electricity.

“We see those areas all growing significantly over the next two to three years.”

On the outlook for revenues in 2026, Carmody said he was “hoping to do 7 or 8 per cent [growth] again this year”.

“That’s an expansionist and growth orientated objective but that’s the sense we get from clients for their demand for legal services.”

Carmody was reappointed as managing partner for a second term from January 1st.

The law firm’s headcount rose by 8 per cent last year and it now employs 670 people in Dublin, London, New York and San Francisco.

It is at an “advanced” stage of choosing a new office headquarters in Dublin, with Carmody saying a decision would be made in the next six to eight months.

During the year, the firm advised on several significant mandates.

In the energy sector, it advised HitecVision and Reinova Partners on the launch of Lirion Power, a new Irish renewable energy platform, and its acquisition of six operational onshore wind assets from Greencoat Renewables plc.

The firm also advised Eiffel Investment Group in its €323 million financing facility for Power Capital Renewable Energy, Ireland’s largest solar independent power producer.

Other notable work included acting for the ICSMA in An Taisce’s challenge to the Fifth Nitrates Action Programme and acting in the recent ComReg case against Sky concerning subscriber information.

It also acted for AIB on the sale of a portfolio of non-performing loans with a face value of €500 million. And it has represented Meta and Whatsapp in regulatory disputes both in European and Irish courts.