Covington & Burling is set to launch a life sciences and technology practice in Dublin next week, pending regulatory approval.
Beauchamps lawyer Maree Gallagher is understood to be the only hire confirmed for the Dublin office, which will be small in scale and focused on life sciences and unlikely to grow to be a full-service firm in the near future.
The US firm is the latest to establish a base in the capital of the Irish republic outside of London following the UK’s decision to leave the EU.
Pinsent Masons announced in June that it would open in Dublin with a three-partner team, marking its fourth office launch in 18 months.
The Lawyer reported last year that Pinsents was looking for a new office in Dublin after the Brexit vote, although it was unclear whether the firm was looking for a merger or a team hire.
Meanwhile, Kennedy’s expanded its Dublin office last year after a report was released that suggested some British businesses would look to leave the UK following the Brexit vote.
The first of the pack was Dechert, which took Invesco Perpetual’s head of legal Michelle Moran to build its Dublin office in July 2010.
Other recent office openings for Covington include its hiring of a four-partner team from Chadbourne & Parke, ahead of new office openings in Dubai and Johannesburg.
The US firm hired London project finance duo Ben Donovan and Agnieszka Klich, as well as Chadbourne’s Dubai head Jack Greenwald and partner Richard Keenan.
The openings come against the backdrop of a strong financial year for the firm, which saw profit per equity partner increase by 16 per cent to to $1.5m and revenue 9 per cent to just short of $70m.
