Expertise

"As a US company moving into Ireland, we found the lawyers flexible and understanding of the particular needs of our business." 
Chambers Europe

Ireland has succeeded in attracting some of the world’s largest organisations to establish operations here. This includes some of the most advanced and leading companies in the technology, pharmaceutical, biosciences, manufacturing and financial services sectors.

There are a number of key reasons:

• Ireland’s low corporate tax rate – corporation tax on trading profits is 12.5% which does not breach EU or OECD harmful tax competition criteria.
• Regulatory, economic and people infrastructure of a highly-developed OECD jurisdiction.
• Benefits of EU membership and the only English–speaking jurisdiction in the euro-zone.
• As a common law jurisdiction, our legal system is similar to that of the US and the UK.
• Provision of a specific tax credit for research and development activity.
• Very limited transfer pricing rules.
• An extensive and expanding double tax treaty network with 46 countries, including the US.
• We traditionally have had a strong, long-standing relationship with the US.

Why Matheson?

With a primary focus on serving the Irish legal needs of internationally focused companies and financial institutions doing business in and from Ireland, our clients include over half of the Fortune 100 companies. We also advise 7 of the top 10 global technology brands and over half of the world's largest banks. We are committed to having a strong presence where our clients are located. We were the first European law firm to establish a presence in Silicon Valley (in 1996), and together with our office in New York, we are proud to have the market-leading Irish presence in the US.

Our practice encompasses all aspects of Irish corporate and business law. We only practice Irish law although a number of our attorneys are admitted, and have practised, in the US with outside law firms and in-house. We provide a comprehensive service to an international client base. We have a leading corporate practice and have significantly the largest tax practice amongst Irish law firms. We are consistently ranked as the leading tax law firm in Ireland by all the leading journals including the International Tax Review.

Our US Business Group is a leader in its field, advising many leading US corporations and institutions on the legal and tax aspects of doing business in and through Ireland.

We have extensive experience in dealing with the government agencies and authorities which have a role to play in the establishment, taxation and regulation of different types of operations in Ireland. We have advised both the Industrial Development Agency of Ireland (IDA) and the Department of Finance on various matters concerning the legal and tax aspects of Ireland’s inward investment infrastructure. We have also assisted these government agencies in the drafting of appropriate legislation to this end.

We are a full service corporate law firm covering every aspect of corporate, financial and business law. We have the resources to successfully manage and implement transactions according to our client’s requirements thereby helping our clients achieve their business objectives. We are committed to providing clients with advice and assistance of the highest calibre. Our approach in supporting in-house counsel of companies doing business in Ireland, is to ensure accessibility and support at short notice with a particular emphasis on efficient same day response where practicable.  We also have offices in London, New York and Palo Alto, California and the interaction between those offices allows us to service the needs of clients across most major time-zones on a real time basis.

Our dedicated US Business Group and our Irish qualified lawyers in the US co-ordinate all of the firm’s US activities.

Our US Business Group is multi-disciplinary, drawing on the expertise of all relevant practice areas including corporate and commercial law, tax law, competition law, employment law, pensions law, property law, construction law, planning and environmental law, intellectual property and information technology law and finance and capital markets law. We primarily advise on:

• Legal and tax aspects of doing business in and through Ireland.
• Legal and tax aspects of restructurings and reorganisation projects involving Irish entities or assets.
• Establishment of operations and related structures in and from Ireland.
• Corporate and Regulatory compliance services for international clients

Our Team