ByrneWallace appoints financial services expert Damien McShane as partner

ByrneWallace appoints financial services expert Damien McShane as partner

Pictured (L-R): Feargal Brennan, Joe Gavin and Damien McShane

ByrneWallace has announced the appointment of financial services expert Damien McShane as a partner.

Mr McShane has over 10 years’ experience advising on financial services law and regulation, with significant expertise advising on AIFMD, the UCITS directives, Solvency II, the Central Bank Acts, MiFID2, PSD2, establishing in Ireland, and Irish investment services and insurance law more broadly.

He advises clients across the financial sector on a broad range of regulatory and commercial matters including fund service providers, investment funds, fund promoters, insurers, payment services firms, banks, market infrastructure providers and corporate executives.

Before joining ByrneWallace, he acted as a legal advisor and executive in a range of roles including at one of Ireland’s leading insurers, and at the Central Bank of Ireland where he specialised in insurance and investment services law as well as the general Irish regulatory framework.

He was also an executive at one of the world’s largest multinational banking groups, where he was most recently a member of the Board of Directors of its Irish depositary company and responsible for that firm’s custody operations.

Mr McShane lectures in the Institute of Banking on legal and regulatory matters, is the current chairperson of the Irish Funds Depositary Working Group, a member of the Irish Funds Operational Steering Group, and was recently appointed as a non-executive director of the Health Insurance Authority.

Commenting on his appointment, managing partner Feargal Brennan said: “We are delighted to welcome Damien to the firm. Damien’s appointment demonstrates the firm’s ongoing commitment to recruiting and developing the best people to deliver the best legal service and advice to our clients.

“In recent years, we have experienced strong and sustained growth in demand for our financial services offering. Damien has a wealth of experience advising on financial services law, and we believe that Damien’s appointment will ensure that ByrneWallace continues to be at the forefront of this market and well positioned to meet the growing and evolving needs of our clients across this sector.”

Joe Gavin, head of financial services, said: “Damien’s appointment also adds exceptional strength and depth to our offering and greatly enhances our ability to service the demands of our thriving financial services practice. His significant in-house and board-level experience also means that, unlike other legal firms, ByrneWallace can provide a compelling, hands-on offering from lawyers with real-life commercial experience working as executives and decision within the range of organisations we advise.

“The breadth and depth of Damien’s expertise across insurance, funds, the regulator, and governance also further strengthens our broad, commercial and regulatory based, financial services team.”

Mark Kavanagh, head of banking and finance, added: “Together with Joe, Damien will work collaboratively with lawyers from our Banking & Finance, Tax, Corporate, Litigation and Regulatory teams to provide a fully integrated service to the financial services sector, thus making it one of the largest financial services practices in Ireland.

“We look forward to working with Damien, and leveraging his wealth of knowledge and technical expertise to further strengthen our range of services and to deliver upon our ongoing commitment to provide excellent advice and service to our clients.”

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