Est. 2011 · Galway Law Society of Ireland · Reg. S-8842 By appointment

Solicitors for families, estates and enterprise.

A two-partner firm on Eyre Square, Galway. We advise private clients, property buyers and sellers, business owners, and families across the West of Ireland — with engagement letters and fee estimates issued before any work begins.

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§ 01 A note from the partners

On the practice of law, plainly put.

Most people do not come to a solicitor because they want to. They come because something has shifted — a sale, a separation, a bereavement, the start or end of a business. The work, done well, is supposed to hand the client back control of a situation that has moved beyond them.

We have come to believe that the clearest service a small firm can offer is the absence of drama. That means doing the paperwork properly the first time, writing letters a client can actually read, returning calls, and telling people what a matter will likely cost before they instruct us. This is harder than it sounds.

Galway is a city of repeat dealings. We practice law here on the assumption that most of our clients will see us again, and that we will see one another’s names on correspondence for the rest of our professional lives. That thought disciplines us, and we think it serves our clients too.

If the matter you have is one we can take on, we will tell you so in the first meeting. If it is not, we will say so, and where possible, say who should.

Ruairí Hennessy Senior Partner

Siobhán Byrne Partner

§ 02 Founding partners

Two solicitors, one firm, continuous cover since 2011.

Ruairí Hennessy

BCL (UCD) · LLM (TCD) · TEP

Ruairí was called to the Bar of Ireland — the Roll of Solicitors — in 2005, practised for six years at a mid-tier Dublin firm advising executors, trustees and landed clients, and returned to Galway in 2011 to co-found the firm. He takes the view that estate planning is, more than any other area of private-client work, a long conversation: the plan set in place for a thirty-eight-year-old with a mortgage and young children is almost never the plan that ought to be in place when the same client reaches seventy.

His day-to-day practice runs across grants of probate and letters of administration, the drafting of wills — including more complex structures involving discretionary trusts and disabled-beneficiary provisions — estate tax planning with particular attention to CAT thresholds and business-property relief, and contentious probate work where beneficiaries dispute the terms or validity of a will.

He is a full member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and sits on the firm’s CPD committee. Clients tend to be private individuals, family-owned businesses and a small number of charitable trusts for which the firm acts as legal adviser.

Called: 2005 — Roll of Solicitors
Primary focus: Probate, estate planning, trusts, CAT
Memberships: STEP (TEP, 2014) · Law Society of Ireland · Probate & Tax Committee
Notable matters: Contentious probate involving a disputed codicil; succession planning for a third-generation farming business (business-property relief); administration of an insolvent estate.
Languages: English, Gaeilge (working)

Siobhán Byrne

BCL (UCC) · Accredited Family Law Mediator (MII) · CEDR-trained

Siobhán was called in 2010 after completing her BCL at University College Cork and her PPC at the Law Society’s Blackhall Place. She spent the first three years of her career at a Limerick firm specialising in family law, crossed to Galway in 2013 to take up a senior associate position, and became co-founder of the practice as it grew out of its original two-room office.

Family law is the largest single line of her work — judicial separations, divorce, cohabitee disputes under the 2010 Act, guardianship and access applications, and the negotiation of separation agreements for couples who prefer to resolve matters without issuing proceedings. She is an accredited family-law mediator with the Mediators’ Institute of Ireland and takes mediation work on a standalone basis where both parties are separately represented.

The second strand of her practice is civil litigation: personal-injury plaintiff work, employment-related High Court claims, and commercial disputes below €250,000. She has completed the CEDR Core Mediator Skills programme and accepts instruction as a mediator in commercial matters.

Called: 2010 — Roll of Solicitors
Primary focus: Family law, civil litigation, mediation
Memberships: Law Society of Ireland · Mediators’ Institute of Ireland (MII) · CEDR (Core Mediator)
Notable matters: Contested judicial separation with pension-adjustment and maintenance order; personal-injury plaintiff recovery following workplace incident; High Court employment claim settled at mediation.
Languages: English, French (conversational)

§ 03 Practice areas

Six areas of practice, by the same two hands.

The firm is deliberately small. The partner you meet at the first consultation is the partner who handles the file. Below: what we do, and equally important, what falls inside each area and what does not.

01 /

Property & conveyancing

Residential and modest commercial conveyancing is the single largest workstream in the firm. The conveyancing partner reviews title, arranges Land Registry searches, raises requisitions, negotiates the contract, handles drawdown of mortgage funds, and attends at closing. Fixed fees are quoted in the engagement letter before contracts are exchanged.

Residential purchase & sale
Mortgage drawdown & re-mortgage
Transfers between family members

Site sales & new-build purchases
Voluntary transfers, severance of joint tenancy
Commercial lease (retail & office, up to 10-year)

02 /

Probate & estate planning

Work ranges from straightforward wills drafted at fixed fee to multi-generational estate plans involving discretionary trusts, agricultural and business-property reliefs, and cross-border assets. Grant-of-probate applications are handled end-to-end from death certificate through to distribution.

Will drafting & execution
Enduring powers of attorney (DSS)
Grants of probate & administration

Discretionary & bare trusts
CAT / inheritance-tax planning
Contentious probate & 117 applications

03 /

Family law

The firm handles the full sweep of family matters — judicial separation, divorce, guardianship, access, and cohabitee redress under the 2010 Act. Where both parties are willing, we encourage mediation and can act either as the representative solicitor or, separately, as the mediator (never both in the same matter).

Judicial separation & divorce
Separation agreements
Mediation (accredited MII)

Guardianship, custody, access
Maintenance & pension adjustment
Cohabitee disputes (2010 Act)

04 /

Commercial & corporate

Advice for owner-managed businesses: incorporation, shareholder agreements, the sale or acquisition of a business below €5m enterprise value, and the drafting of standard-form commercial contracts. We do not act on public takeovers, listed-company work, or regulated financial-services transactions — for those, we refer in Dublin.

Company formation & restructuring
Shareholder & partnership agreements
Asset & share sales (SME)

Commercial contracts & T&Cs
Supply & distribution agreements
Franchise & licensing (Irish-law)

05 /

Litigation & personal injury

Civil litigation below €250,000 — personal-injury plaintiff claims following the PIAB process, contract and commercial disputes, debt recovery for business clients, and defamation where the matter is suitable. We do not take on criminal defence, class actions, or judicial review proceedings.

Personal injury (PIAB & Circuit)
Contract & commercial disputes
Professional negligence

Landlord & tenant disputes
Debt recovery & enforcement
Defamation (selected cases)

06 /

Employment law

Advice to both employers and employees. For employers: contracts of employment, staff handbooks, dismissal procedure, TUPE and redundancy. For employees: unfair-dismissal and discrimination claims at WRC and Labour Court, and negotiated settlements on exit.

Contracts & staff handbooks
Disciplinary & grievance procedure
TUPE & redundancy

WRC & Labour Court representation
Unfair dismissal & discrimination
Settlement agreements

§ 04 Our approach

How we engage, and what you can expect.

The mechanics of instructing a solicitor are unfamiliar to most people. These are the parts we are asked about most often, in the order they tend to come up.

Fees & engagement letters

Before we take on any matter, we issue a written engagement letter (Section 150 notice) setting out the scope of work, the likely cost, and who at the firm will act. You do not receive an invoice for work we did not agree to do.

Hourly rates run €200–€350 depending on the fee-earner and area. Wherever possible we quote fixed fees instead, so that the cost is known in advance.

Residential conveyancing (purchase) from €1,400 + VAT

Residential conveyancing (sale) from €1,200 + VAT

Standard will (single) €250 + VAT

Mirror wills (couple) €400 + VAT

Enduring Power of Attorney from €450 + VAT

Grant of probate (uncontested) 2% – 2.5% of estate

Client confidentiality

Everything disclosed to the firm — in the first phone call, in the waiting room, at a consultation or over email — is held under legal professional privilege. That privilege belongs to you, not to us, and we cannot waive it without your written instruction.

We do not publish client testimonials on this website, or anywhere else. Where prospective clients ask whether we have acted in a matter like theirs before, we will say so in general terms, but we will not identify past clients by name, area or outcome.

All client files are held on encrypted systems. Paper files are kept in locked storage for the period required by the Law Society of Ireland’s practice regulations and are destroyed on a secure, logged basis thereafter.

Conflict checks

Before we can give substantive advice, we run a conflict check against the names of the parties on the other side of your matter. If we have previously acted for that party, or for a related entity, or if there is any other circumstance that would compromise our independence, we will tell you so at the earliest practical moment and decline instruction.

Our strong preference in a potential conflict is a clean decline with a referral onward, rather than the use of information barriers within a two-partner firm. Small firms are not the right setting for Chinese walls.

Timelines & communication

At the first consultation we sketch out the realistic timeline for the matter — measured in weeks for a will, weeks to months for conveyancing, and frequently months to years for family or litigation work. We do not promise timelines we cannot control; court-listing dates, Land Registry queues and Revenue processing are outside any solicitor’s gift.

We aim to return calls and emails within one business day. Where you are represented by us in proceedings, we issue written updates at every substantive step — typically letter rather than email for matters of real importance.

§ 05 Office & contact

On Eyre Square, by appointment.

Address

Hennessy & Byrne Solicitors
25 Eyre Square
Galway, H91 DC8V

First-floor office. Entrance between the newsagent and the pharmacy; intercom marked “Solicitors”.

Telephone

091 555 0217

Answered in person, Mon–Fri 09:00–17:30. Voicemail is monitored outside those hours and returned next business day.

Email

office@hennessybyrne.ie

General office inbox. For an existing matter, please continue to correspond with your fee-earner directly.

Consultations

By appointment only.

Initial consultations run 30–45 minutes. The first consultation on a new private-client matter is offered at a fixed fee of €120 + VAT, deducted from the final invoice if you go on to instruct the firm.

Hours

Mon–Fri 09:00–17:30

The office is closed on Bank Holidays and between 24 December and 2 January. Out-of-hours appointments are available for executors, employers, and urgent family matters by prior arrangement.

To instruct the firm Email the office Call 091 555 0217