FIRM PROFILE:WHEN EVERSHEDS O'Donnell Sweeney rebranded itself as the snappier "Eversheds" before Christmas, the cynical take was that the Dublin law firm was trying to shed its associations with property.
After all, income from its once-booming real estate practice has shrunk from 60 per cent to 20 per cent of overall turnover. However managing partner Alan Murphy puts paid to this theory.
“We still have a very strong property practice and we do a lot of work for Nama and the banks [and developers],” Murphy says.
He adds that the link between O’Donnell Sweeney (established by Rory O’Donnell in 1967) and international law firm Eversheds dates back to the early 2000s, when a “best friends” relationship was formed. This grew into a formal association and then an alignment – “it’s been a slow and gradual organic building of the relationship.” So the decision to drop the O’Donnell Sweeney was the next logical step.
“It gives our brand great simplicity,” he says. The move also ties in with the Eversheds ethos: increasingly members of the network are dropping their own names and adopting the Eversheds moniker.
Of course, brand recognition is not the only advantage of being part of this global chain. Eversheds has 45 offices across 29 jurisdictions. Murphy says multinational clients are increasingly looking for the international offering that such a network can provide. The same is also true for indigenous Irish clients. Very few of their decisions in the coming years will be purely domestically focused. “They’re facing outwards, looking internationally. We can assist them in those projects,” he says.
When an Eversheds client requires advice across several jurisdictions, they’re assigned one relationship manager who acts as their point of contact even though several offices may be carrying out work for them.
For example, Murphy acts as global client partner for a number of significant multinationals.
“I manage that relationship throughout EMEA [Europe, the Middle East and Africa],” he says. “That client would then rely on me to ensure that the project was done properly.”
Work from multinationals is increasing significantly but Murphy, who is a member of the international board, says being part of the network is not just about getting growth from other offices. “It’s about building an international organisation.”
Aside from its international reach, the other element that sets Eversheds apart from its domestic rivals is its approach to fees. In the legal world, there has been much debate as to whether the traditional “hourly rate” pricing structure will soon be extinct.
Whether the “billable hour” is dead remains to be seen, but certainly firms are coming under pressure to adopt more flexible fee structures. In this, Eversheds is leading the way – wherever possible, clients are quoted a fixed fee in advance.
Of course, there are sometimes cases where the full extent of the job isn’t known at the outset. Murphy likens these situations to finding dry rot in an attic – you lift a floorboard but can’t see how far it’s spread. In that instance, they have discussions with the client at each phase of the job and let them know where their fees are at.
“What clients do not want are unpleasant surprises.”
At some Irish firms, there may not be any discussion of fees until the deal is concluded and then the client is hit with the bill. “That would be anathema to us.”
In terms of areas of activity, the firm is very busy in banking and has also picked up quite a bit of work from Nama. It is still advising a number of the larger developers on “working their positions through” with the banks and Nama.
But surely working for the three sides of the unholy trinity that is the banks, the developers and Nama must create conflicts of interest? Naturally, Murphy insists the firm is “very scrupulous” on this, saying that all of the institutions have guidelines on conflicts of interest which the firm adheres to.
During the property boom, Eversheds had one of the largest residential housing practices, so perhaps it is no surprise that in late 2008, it became the first law firm to downsize, reducing its headcount by about 15 per cent.
“We got a lot of criticism for it in the market place at the time, but then the other law firms followed suit.”
However its numbers have risen again thanks to growth in areas such as tax, healthcare and HR, to the point where its workforce is now back to where it was, at about 180 staff. “I have always been of the belief that you can never get too many good people.”
He accepts that the market is very challenging for young solicitors at the moment, but points out that Eversheds retained five trainee solicitors who qualified in February. “There is a market for good people.”