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Dennis Agnew
Partner
Dennis Agnew is the founder of our Dublin office and advises international and Irish companies on mid-market private M&A across a variety of sectors.
Before joining the firm, Dennis was the founder and senior partner of the Dublin office of a large international law firm and, over a five-year period, Dennis’ Dublin team advised on over 120 successfully completed cross-border transactions, acting for a mixture of buyers, sellers, trade, private equity and management, as well as carrying out significant corporate advisory and restructuring work.
Born in New York and having lived and worked in the US at various times, Dennis has 25 years of experience in advising US, UK and other overseas clients on establishing operations in Ireland, either through acquisition or through greenfield development, and on their ongoing Irish legal requirements, utilising his foreign direct investment connections and experience to their benefit. While with a previous Irish law firm, Dennis was the founder of its satellite New York office, which concentrated on advising US clients on foreign direct investment work into Ireland.
- Advising US fintech Payroc on the share acquisition of the Irish-headquartered Worldnet technology group.
- Advising US-headquartered industrial flooring group Mohawk Industries and its Belgian subsidiary Unilin on the share acquisition of Irish- and UK-based Ballytherm.
- Advising EMEA-based Central Investments Group on the share acquisition of the UK-headquartered Selfridges Group, including the Brown Thomas & Company Limited group, Ireland’s premium retail stores.
- Advising UK private equity firm Synova on the share acquisition of the Irish-headquartered DM Financial and subsequent acquisition of Dutch company Solutional Holdings BV.
- Advising Luxembourg- and Swiss-based MDO Financial Services and its management on the share sale to MML of private equity-backed DMS Waystone. The transaction was named Deal of the Year by Finance Dublin.
- Advising UK private equity firm Livingbridge on the share acquisition of the WellTEL (now DigitalWell) communications technology group.
- Advising the management team of Irish-based GSLS Group on the share sale of the business to Star Capital and the exit of Carlyle Cardinal.
Education
- University College Dublin, BBL, 1995
Admissions
- Law Society of Ireland, 2000
Memberships & Affiliations
- Law Society of Ireland
- “I couldn’t have had a better team to help on this deal. I was constantly impressed by the professionalism and work ethic of Dennis and his team. Their experience made our sale process a lot easier. I doubt there are many better in the business.” – John Cummins, NEXA Enterprise Asset Management (US)
- “Dennis and his team did a great job. We will definitely use them again.” – Sunil Jain, Synova (UK)
- “We enjoyed Dennis’ good and pragmatic advice throughout our sale process.” – Martin Vogel, MDO Financial Services (Switzerland)
- “Dennis and his team guided us throughout the transaction, giving us valuable practical and commercial advice as well as delivering excellent service and understanding on all legal matters. They were central to the success of the project.” – Fred Spencer, Ludlum Consortium (US)
- “Dennis and his team’s effort, advice and patience in guiding us were greatly appreciated. It was my pleasure getting to know and working with them.” – Stephanie Verbeke, Unilin Group (Belgium)
- “Dennis and his team were extremely responsive, providing high-quality advice, showing significant flexibility and versatility and, quite importantly, maintaining perspective at all times. It was a real pleasure working with them, and we hope to do so again.” – Jesús López Bragado, N.H. Hotel Group S.A. (Spain)
- “The hard work and dedication from Dennis and his team helped us to see the deal through.” – Viktor Skargren, Axel Johnson International AB (Sweden)
- “I was impressed by Dennis and his team for their ability to turn work quickly and the high quality of the work.” – Chris Cooper, Aspen Technology, Inc. (US)
- “It was a pleasure to work with Dennis: very responsive, commercial, and yet advising the client on the true risks.” – Ascan Kokai, ECE Real Estate Partners GmbH (Germany)
- “Dennis and the team showed great professionalism and perseverance in getting us to completion of our transaction against the odds.” – Tom Hyland, Decotek Automotive (Ireland)
- “We really appreciated the excellent and professional job that Dennis and his team did. It was very impressive.” – David McGarry, Enva Ireland
- “From our first call together, Dennis’ team’s input, insight and willingness to share their experience and knowledge has been appreciated.” – Tom Ferguson, Well Pharmacy Group (UK)
- “From our first meeting, we knew we were in the right hands with Dennis and his team.” – Niall Feely, GSLS (Ireland)