Irish firm Mason Hayes & Curran has reported a 20 per cent revenue rise in 2015 to €72m (£54.5m), up from €60m the previous year.
The increase signals a revenue rise of 50 per cent in just two years, with turnover in 2013 sitting at €48m.
During the course of 2015 Mason Hayes recruited 75 staff and lawyers. Its fee-earner headcount rose to 273 from 250 in 2014, putting revenue per fee-earner at €264,000 in 2015 compared to €240,000 the previous year.
Managing partner Declan Black told The Lawyer the rise in turnover was due to “an absolute manic focus on doing the right thing for the client all of the time, plus a benign economic climate.
“The economic climate is the pitch – we have no control over it – but the game we play we have total control over.”
Black said the firm had seen increased volumes of activity at all levels as well as a slightly lower increase in productivity.
“The growth has been broadly based, there isn’t one practice group lagging behind,” he added.
He said transactional work, in corporate, finance and real estate, had been stronger than contentious activity.
M&A deals Mason Hayes worked on last year include Activision’s $5.9bn purchase of Candy Crush maker King Digital Entertainment, Emirates National Oil Company’s acquisition of its remaining shares in Dragon Oil, and Irish homebuilder Cairn Homes’ London IPO.
The firm also announced the hire of English-qualified solicitor Graeme Bell as the new head of its London office. Corporate partner Bell joined the firm from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where he was senior counsel, and will take over from finance partner Louis Burke as City managing partner in April after some months in Dublin. Burke will remain in London to head up Mason Hayes’ City finance practice.
