A&L Goodbody remains largest law firm by solicitor numbers

The firm had 365 practising solicitors at the end of 2023, up from 348 in the previous year and ahead of Matheson on 361 and Arthur Cox on 326, the Gazette reports.

Those are the only three firms in the State with more than 300 practising solicitors associated with them. McCann FitzGerald comes in fourth with 290 solicitors, followed by Mason Hayes & Curran on 279 and William Fry on 208.

The figures published by the Law Society now include in-house teams, with the Chief State Solicitor’s Office (CSSO) ranking in seventh place with 186 solicitors, followed by ByrneWallace on 148, the Legal Aid Board on 129 and Maples and Calder on 123.

The next 10 firms and in-house teams are RDJ (115), the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (106), Allied Irish Banks (99), Eversheds Sutherland (98), Beauchamps (97), Dillon Eustace (94), the Central Bank of Ireland (85), Hayes Solicitors (84), Philip Lee (74) and Fieldfisher (70).

Overall, there were 11,871 practising certificates in place at the end of 2023, with 772 new solicitors admitted over the course of the year, a 50 per cent increase on 2022. A total of 548 trainees were admitted, the highest annual figure since 2011.

In-house solicitors also now make up over 25 per cent of the profession, the figures highlight.