
J. Kirby Tarrant
J. Kirby Tarrant Clark HillDublin, Ireland
J. Kirby Tarrant
Partner
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.