London-headquartered international law firm Pinsent Masons is accelerating the establishment of a "key global hub" in Dublin in response to the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.
The company said Dublin had been on its radar for some time for the financial services and technology industries, and that the Brexit vote has made the plan for a base here more significant in that context.
The new office will focus on the financial services and technology sectors initially, with a team of three well-known Dublin practitioners - Gayle Bowen, Andreas Carney and Dennis Agnew - founding the new practice.
It will be Pinsent Masons' fourth international office opening in less than 18 months.
Commenting on the move, Senior Partner at the firm Richard Foley said: "We have operated in Ireland for some time on a range of matters and Dublin has long been in our thinking as a key global hub for the financial services and technology industries.
"That status has only become even more significant in the context of Brexit.
"The feedback we've had from our clients as we developed our Ireland strategy was that they would welcome a disruptor coming into the market and our reputation as an innovator is therefore of significant interest to them."
The new office will target work initially from the 50 of the firm's top 250 clients who are present in Ireland, and will bring the total number of Pinsent Masons lawyers across the island of Ireland to 12 partners and over 50 lawyers.
The company posted global revenue of £382.8m in the last financial year and has almost 3,000 employees.
The firm already has six offices in Asia Pacific, two offices in the Middle East, four offices in continental Europe (Paris, Munich, Dusseldorf and Madrid), and one in Africa.
