Business Plus Commercial Law Survey 2025

In the annual Business Plus Commercial Law Survey, Managing Partner Donnacha O'Connor shares his outlook on the opportunities and challenges facing firms in the Irish legal market.

Activity

For many of our clients, EU regulation - and in particular the ongoing implementation of the EU’s digital finance strategy - has had the most significant impact on businesses over the last number of years. In 2024, the EU’s AI Act, which creates a legal framework for the development and use of artificial intelligence systems, and the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation were introduced. This year marked the end of the transitionary period for Digital Operational Resilience Act (Dora). All are major compliance burdens, and there is more to come in this area. Major developments like this require significant up-skilling, monitoring of emerging interpretations and market practices, and lots of knowledge sharing with our clients, as well as project work.

Innovation

Like many firms, we have established a centralised technology and innovation function, and we are using technology and AI to create more efficient solutions where there are specific use cases for our firm or particular clients.

Challenges

The key challenge was and remains competition for the best talent. The other major theme was the integration of legal technology and systems and the use of artificial intelligence. These are not new challenges, but the need to move quickly to maintain competitiveness in these areas is now far more pronounced. They also provide exciting opportunities for firms to offer new solutions to their clients, to work in new ways and operate more efficiently.

Outlook

It’s an increasingly competitive market and there has been some consolidation in the market and more in the near-term seems to be a likely outcome. The large advisory firms continue to increase their share of the advisory market and edge their way into the legal market. At the same time, legal services are transforming through technology and the growth of AI. This is all happening at an accelerating pace. Law firms that want to remain independent and to compete with larger law firms, large advisory firms as well as alternative legal service providers (and AI itself) will need to adapt quickly. The quality of a law firm’s people and their level of service must be clear differentiators, but firms may need to broaden their advisory services into areas traditionally occupied by non-legal firms and it’s difficult to see how law firms can avoid becoming leaner organisations.

First published in Business Plus Magazine, April 2025