‘What’s happening with Kirkland would make a great Netflix documentary, although maybe a bit niche,’ quips one managing partner of the recent saga of the Chicago-bred powerhouse and Paul Weiss’ London office. ‘Let’s hope they’ve had cameras dotted around the office!’ The amused detachment with which the remark is delivered could be said to sum up the stance of Ireland’s law firm leaders in the round – often looking on at the dramas besetting other international markets from a rarefied position of relative immunity to the worst of the upheavals faced elsewhere in the world.
However, no market is an island, and many of the challenges faced by Ireland’s leading firms this time last year not only remain but have become more urgent. Managing partners are just as alive to reversals created by an ultra-competitive recruitment environment, not helped by a cost-of-living crisis that shows little sign of releasing its grip any time soon, while the ongoing war in Ukraine and related upward spiral of interest rates and inflation continue to make themselves felt.
