Ms Finnerty succeeded Orla O’Connor, who after six years in the post said: “Ailish is an exceptional leader, with a deep understanding of our clients’ needs and the evolving legal landscape. I have no doubt that she will guide the firm with integrity, vision, and dedication.”

With the firm since 1997, she’s been a regular participant on its various committees, such as the management committee and policy committee. “I’m a tax partner so have gained a deep knowledge of the firm and I’m fortunate in being able to draw on that,” she says.  

She will also be able to draw on her predecessor. “There was a period of handover before Orla stepped down on March 31 and I’m lucky enough to still have access to her and get advice as appropriate,” says Ms Finnerty.

With any new role comes new responsibilities, and in a leading firm that was founded in 1920 (and which was involved in the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty), a total headcount of almost 900 and offices in Dublin, Belfast, London, New York and San Francisco, these are clearly substantial ones.

“Geoff Moore, our managing partner, takes the lead on all business-related issues, which means I’m not at the coal face when dealing with the day-to-day management of the business. Rather, I am chairing the policy committee that sets the strategic direction of the firm alongside my executive role as a partner,” she explains.

As a partner in Arthur Cox’s tax group she specialises in corporate tax, acting for a range of international clients that include financial institutions, multinational corporations, private equity houses and hedge funds as well as growth and emerging companies, particularly in the life sciences and technology sectors.

Her caseload has included advising multinationals on a variety of corporate transactions and several US and European asset managers in establishing Irish platforms (section 110 companies and fund structures) to hold a variety of asset classes including loan portfolios, trade receivables, equipment leases and royalty receivables.

It means she, and the firm, deal with some esoteric aspects of tax law extending across a wide range of practice areas. “We have a substantial corporate M&A business plus a big finance practice involving debt capital markets investment funds and debt finance; a significant litigation practice; real estate and several other specialisms from IP and technology to pensions and employment.

“And all these practice areas have a different client base, from financial institutions, asset managers and major multinationals with operations in Ireland to smaller SMEs and domestic Irish companies.”

Ms Finnerty says she decided to concentrate on tax some two years after qualifying. “I thought that I could make more of an impact in what was then a very male-dominated profession if I was a subject matter specialist,” she recalls.

“I didn’t foresee though the subsequent pace of change in the degree to which women would survive and indeed thrive in this business, with 40 per cent of our partners now being women.

“I’m not sure why I decided to study law initially as there’s no history of it in the family but luckily, I chose an area that really suited me. Tax is a hugely interesting area in which to practice because you’ve the opportunity to advise on issues right across the firm.”

She continues: “You could be working on an M&A deal, on a structured finance deal or a real estate transaction — so you get an overview of all areas of business and as a result gain an excellent knowledge of the firm, which has stood me in good stead here and hopefully will be an advantage as I take the chair.”

Ireland, she adds, is such a significant global player now, with a large, investment funds and structured finance offering as well as being home to a huge number of publicly traded and international companies especially in the technology and life sciences sectors that “as a tax practitioner you get a ringside seat to all of that and of the phenomenal rate of change”.

Ms Finnerty has seen at first hand the international significance of the firm’s work, having spent three years in the New York office between 2011 and 2014, which she looks back on as a very impactful period in her career. 

“If I was to cite anything that really shaped what I am today it is that time spent in New York which was truly eye-opening, especially seeing the difference there in the response to the global financial crisis.

“Ireland was still very much finding its feet in 2011, and there was a lot of pain and suffering in the jurisdiction. In contrast, in the US there was a high degree of optimism — probably because it was much more used to a boom-bust cycle and regarded this as just another phase of that cycle.”

It also gave her the chance to view Ireland through the eyes of a prospective American client weighing up the options for international expansion.

Plus, she adds, living in New York “wasn’t exactly a hardship” — though social life was curtailed somewhat as she already had a young baby when she moved there and her second child arrived during her stay. 

Now these daughters are 14 and 11 respectively and Ms Finnerty — a native of Co Mayo — lives with them, her husband Derek and a golden retriever called Ivy at Sandycove. 

“We moved there just before the Covid pandemic — and I have to say that I attribute my sanity to being beside the sea during that period,” she says.

“It’s great to get out and appreciate nature: I still have family in Mayo and return on a regular basis because that’s also a big part of who I am.”

Which is also no doubt an opportunity to temporarily decompress from the responsibility of being chair of Arthur Cox, a firm that she says fosters a high-performance culture. “We’re a very client-centred business, one that’s intensely solutions focused but at the heart of it is our people, so we make sure we recruit the best. 

“There’s a lot of change going on in all areas of business and legal life and to navigate that we have to stay true to these values,” she says. 

“We can’t afford to be distracted by the noise of what’s happening in the market and its disruptive effects, whether that’s in the sphere of geopolitics or technology, and we’ll continue to focus on delivering innovative solutions — something Arthur Cox has been doing for more than 100 years in the Irish market.”