J. Kirby Tarrant

Kirby Tarrant is recognised as an experienced commercial lawyer who is greatly valued by his clients for his practical, solution focused and highly strategic approach to his work. Kirby instills this ethos throughout his team and ensures that in addition to benefitting from the technical expertise of his lawyers, clients experience an efficient and comprehensive service that ensures the best outcome for them in relation to their legal needs.

Commercial  Law:

• Extensive  experience  advising  upon  all  aspects  of  the  acquisition  and  disposal  of  private  companies  in  deal  sizes  ranging from  €1m  to  €50m;
• Drafting,  advising  and  negotiating  on  all  transaction  documents  for  private  M&A  deals, technically  structured  to  maximize  tax  savings;
• Direct, significant  involvement  in  due  diligence  procedures  including  setting  up  data  rooms  and  preparing  due  diligence  reports;
• Drafting,  advising  and  negotiating  upon  a  wide  range  of  commercial  documents,  including:  agency,  distribution,  supply,  licensing,  franchise,  and  manufacturing  agreements; 
• Providing detailed, structured and strategically clever advice in relation to: 
  • company  formations,  advising  and  negotiating shareholder  agreements,  private  company  constitutions,  employee  participation  schemes,  share  options,  employment  and  consultancy  agreements; 
  • joint  venture  agreements,  BES  investments,  venture  capital  agreements  and  private  equity  funding;
  • partnership  agreements,  retiring  partner  agreements  and  partnership dissolution;
• Advising  credit  unions  upon  general  commercial  matters, compliance  and  suitable  investments  mainly  arising  from  acting  in  many  mis-selling  claims  on  behalf  of  credit  unions. 
• Kirby has specific expertise in Data  Protection matters and  has  written  and  presented  papers  on  this  topic  to international  law  groups. 

Commercial  Litigation:

In addition to his expertise in commercial law generally, Kirby has vast  experience  in  all  areas  of  commercial  litigation; 

• acted  in  leading commercial cases  to  come  before  the  Irish  Courts. At the start of his career he led the successful defence team in one of the largest ever cases before the Irish Courts of Marathon Petroleum Ireland v Bord Gais Eireann and has continued to act in many leading commercial cases;
• extensive  knowledge  of  shareholder,  partnership  and  property  disputes  and  involved  in  numerous  Section  205  shareholder  actions  involving  changes  to  company  law;
• acted in many defamation cases including Fanning v Irish Daily Mail  and Cooney v Irish Times; 
• directly involved  in  numerous  cases  in  the  Commercial  Court  and  High  Court, often developing, pursuing and achieving a strategically beneficial settlement for the client with the result that the case is dealt with confidentially and without the necessity for a court appearance.

Kirby has specific experience of a number of sectors that is relevant to the needs of his commercial clients and in all of these cases Kirby  has a  lead  role  in  preparing  the  claims,  advancing  the  proceedings  to  an  early  trial  date  and  successfully  negotiating  a  satisfactory  outcome  for  his  clients.

• noted specialist  in  ‘mis-selling’  cases  and  has  written  and  presented  papers  on  this  topic  to  Dublin  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  International  law  groups; 
• representation of  over  20  Credit  Unions  in  mis-selling  claims  against Davy  Stockbrokers  over  perpetual  bonds  including  E-Services  and  Communications Credit  Union  v  Davy where the claim  was  for  over  €15m.  The  case  was  conducted  in  the  Commercial  Court  and  following,  an  extensive  discovery  process, was settled  for  substantial  damages.  Other  similar  mis-selling  cases  including  Greystones  Credit  Union  v  Bloxham. 
• extensive  knowledge  of shareholder,  partnership and  property  disputes  with specific involvement  in  numerous  Section  205  shareholder  actions  involving  changes  to  company  law.  He  acted  for  a  group  of  BES  shareholders  in  the  leading shareholder  dispute  case  of  McGilligan  and  Premier Trading House Limited  and  was  successful  in  the  High  Court  and  on  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court  in  restraining  the  removal  of  a  non-executive  director.  
• Representation of  Pod Music in  the  case  of  Pod  Music  v  Festival  Republic  Dublin  Limited  in  the  Commercial  Court  concerning  a  major  shareholder  dispute  over  the  Electric  Picnic  Festival.    This  claim  resulted  in  a  very  successful  settlement  following  an  extensive  discovery  process.

Commercial  Property:

Kirby has  many  years'  experience delivering expert, client focused advice in relation to wide ranging commercial property matters including investigation of title and the drafting and  negotiation of the full suite of conveyancing  documents.