Associate - Corporate

The Corporate Department at Byrne Wallace Shields comprises one of the largest corporate practices in Ireland and provides proactive and quality advice to a broad range of clients (including public and private companies and State bodies) across a wide range of sectors.

We are currently advising on a wide range of high value and quality corporate transactions as well as on related commercial and advisory mandates.

The candidate will be part of a team assisting Corporate Partners on corporate transactions and also a certain amount of commercial contracts work. Some of the work will involve working in a transactional setting on corporate mandates with distinct policy drivers that are bespoke and unlike the work done at other large law firms. This makes our team unique in the Dublin legal landscape and the transactional work intellectually stimulating and personally rewarding from a professional and career development perspective. We can discuss this in more detail at interview stage.

Much of the work is leading edge and higher order legal work where the client requires deep engagement with their lawyers in circumstances where the advice given is of critical importance to the client. This leads to the creation of strong relationships between the Firm/its lawyers and our clients which are enduring and long-lasting in nature. The successful candidate will work in a supportive team environment to meet client needs and will, over time, develop a trusted client/advisor relationship.

Key aspects of role:

• Assisting on private sector and public sector corporate transactions including:
  • Undertaking / managing legal due diligence exercises & preparation of due diligence reports;
  • Drafting & legal negotiation of key transaction agreements (including SPAs, APAs etc);
  • Drafting & legal negotiation of key investment & shareholder/JV agreements;
  • Disclosure exercises & preparation/review of Disclosure Letters;
  • General corporate transaction work, including with regard to ancillary documentation (including board minutes, resolutions), co-ordination of completion etc;
• Assisting in corporate re-organisations and restructuring (private and public sector) and provision of related strategic & legal advice;
• Drafting & legal negotiation of commercial contracts (including in a public sector context in conjunction with procurement team) and provision of related contractual advice;
• Corporate/commercial advisory work and related legal research.

Other requirements of role:

• Participation in business development initiatives;
• Contributing to department’s knowledge management/CPD programme;
• Complying with financial KPIs (including re time recording, billing etc)

Key skills:

• A minimum of 2-3 years’ experience with a strong background in corporate practice and commercial contracts experience.
• Experience of advising public sector clients an advantage (but not essential)
• Excellent technical & drafting skills.
• Strong legal research & analytical skills.
• Strong commercial awareness/business acumen.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Strong project management skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively as part of a team (and as part of a broader cross-departmental team)
• A high level of motivation & the ability to work on one’s own initiative.