Irish law firm Matheson has announced the opening of an office in San Francisco. With over 650 staff headquartered in Dublin, this expansion represents the firm’s third US office – and its fifth office globally. The opening is in response to the continually increasing client demand on the West Coast for Irish legal services, and it builds upon the firm’s presence in the region through its existing West Coast office in Palo Alto.

Commenting on the opening, Michael Jackson, Matheson Managing Partner said: “Matheson is a market leader for Irish legal services – and the opening of our San Francisco office continues our track record of servicing our clients where they are located and providing immediate access to Irish legal advice and support on the most complex legal matters. Our new San Francisco office allows us to support our West Coast client base with operations in Ireland, and also our Irish client base accessing international markets.

“We are seeing growth across all practice areas, including technology, data protection, fintech, intellectual property, international corporate transactions and tax. The new office will focus on these areas as well as other key areas including pharma, medtech and financial services.”

The new office will be led by Matheson West Coast Head Partner Mark O’Sullivan, together with technology and privacy partner Chris Bollard, who joins the firm on 1 August.

Mr O’Sullivan noted: “The US West Coast is an important technology and innovation ecosystem with significant investment into Ireland. Face to face relationships are as important to us as they are to our clients – and all of our global offices are partner-led.

“The global technology industry is booming, fuelled by advancements in emerging areas such as AI and data analytics. Post-Brexit, Ireland, with an already large presence of technology multinationals, has the capacity to benefit from additional US investment into Europe. The opening of our San Francisco office will support our continued collaboration with our clients and help them to remain competitive as they deal with the complexity of the current market conditions. Furthermore, working with the strong Irish Government support network and the IDA on the West Coast, we can play a part in integrating more of these companies into Ireland, ultimately creating revenue growth and job opportunities.”

www.matheson.com