Pinsent Masons has revealed it could open an office in Dublin as it launches a review of its operations in Ireland in the wake of Brexit.
The firm already has an office in Belfast, which is headed up by corporate partner Paul McBride. A Dublin office would be Pinsents’ first base in the Republic of Ireland.
It is not yet known whether Pinsents will seek to launch the office through a merger with a local firm or a team hire.
A Pinsents spokesperson said: “As you would expect we periodically review with our referral partners how best we can service client demand, however it would be inaccurate to characterise any of those discussions as merger talks.
“Of course we won’t rule out anything that enhances our ability to service the global sectors in which we operate, however, at this stage we’re very comfortable with our existing and highly successful platform.”
Pinsents has recently opened a number of international offices after picking up teams from firms already on the ground. Last week the firm announced it was opening its first office in Johannesburg after hiring Bowman Gilfillan’s head of construction Rob Morson and litigator Shane Voigt.
The firm employed a similar strategy to open its second office in Germany in February, raiding KPMG for a three-partner team. The team comprised KPMG’s energy and major projects head Thorsten Volz and partners Torsten Wielsch and Sönke Gödeke.
Historically Pinsents is also no stranger to growing its business through mergers. In 2012 Pinsents merged with Scottish firm McGrigors in a move that boosted its turnover to £282m and increased its headcount to over 2,500.
A number of other firms are known to be mulling launching a base in Ireland to mitigate a restriction in EU following Britain’s decision to leave the EU in June.
Eversheds recently announced it was pushing forward plans to launch its consultancy business in Ireland. The plans were hastened after a potential German client chose not to use Eversheds Consulting as it did not have a presence in the EU.
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