4 August 2021

McCann FitzGerald Sees Continued Growth, with Substantial Investment in its Teams Across All Practice Areas

This commitment to grow its team and invest in talent was underlined by the appointments of Georgina O’Riordan as new Group Leader of the Finance Department, and Stephen FitzSimons as Group Leader of the Corporate Department, along with the appointment of six new partners in May, to bring to eighty the total number of partners at the all-equity partnership. McCann FitzGerald’s virtual internship programme also ran in June and July with 55 interns joining for two weeks in a programme which saw them work alongside a number of departments, while also receiving first class legal and personal development training. 

Georgina O’Riordan, new leader of the Finance Group, focuses on banking and asset finance transactions with a particular expertise in aviation. She advises leading aircraft lessors, lenders and arrangers on all aspects of aircraft financing and leasing including cross-border leasing transactions, sale and leaseback transactions, portfolio acquisitions and disposals, secured lending and aircraft capital markets transactions, and the establishment of leasing and financing platforms in Ireland. Her work involved acting as lead counsel to one of the largest operating lessors on a number of its most significant transactions in 2020 including the sale and lease back of over twenty-one aircraft to operators based in multiple jurisdictions, as well as advising a number of aircraft lessors in connection with the Irish examinership of Norwegian Air Shuttle and certain of its Irish incorporated affiliates.

Stephen FitzSimons, the new Head of the firm’s Corporate Group, specialises in public and private M&A and equity capital markets. He advises public and private companies, together with all other market participants, on the full range of corporate governance and securities law requirements, with a particular interest in the interaction of Irish and US securities laws and shareholder activism. Some key transactions Stephen has been involved in include advising AbbVie Inc. on its recommended acquisition of Allergan plc in a cash and stock transaction valued at $63 billion, and Greencoat Renewables plc on its €270 million initial public offering and subsequent placings raising gross proceeds of more than €500 million.

Barry Devereux, Managing Partner of McCann FitzGerald, said: “We are delighted twenty of our qualifying trainees will join the firm, in a clear sign of our ambition and growth plans. This past year has been a difficult year for many of our clients, but they are seeing strong growth in their businesses as economies reopen.  I am very confident that Georgina and Stephen will build on the existing strength of our Finance and Corporate teams. Our continued investment in our people ensures that we can continue to provide the quality of service they expect on their most significant transactions and critical disputes.”