London Calling: Irish lawyers upbeat

As one of his first acts in government following Labour’s landslide election victory, Britain’s new prime minister Sir Keir Starmer invited his Irish counterpart Simon Harris to Chequers.

In his ensuing media interviews, Harris, who became Ireland’s youngest ever taoiseach in April, said that there is now an “opportunity to hit the reset button”, and that Ireland would be an ally of the UK in any future negotiations with the EU on its Brexit agreement and related matters. Plainly, that commitment does not foreshadow any reversal of Brexit, but it does potentially herald some change in the mood music surrounding London, which has become a second home for all the big Irish law firms. Before the referendum vote, during protracted discussions and tortuous debates over how best to implement the result, and ever since Brexit was finally agreed, they have thrived. It is hoped that a new Labour government, elected on the single mantra of change, can further assist their business by providing greater stability and certainty in its five-year term of government – qualities that have been notably absent over much of the past decade.