Business Transfer Solicitors — Dublin

Selling and buying businesses — structure, documents, consents and completion.

The firm’s Dublin office is at The Ormond Building on Ormond Quay Upper. Business sales are largely a documentary exercise conducted between advisers, so location matters less here than in most practice areas — but Dublin does concentrate the buyers, the funders and the professional advisers a deal runs through.

A Deeper Buyer Pool, and What That Changes

Dublin businesses are more likely to attract trade buyers, private equity interest and structured processes than businesses elsewhere in the country, and that changes the seller’s position in two ways. The first is favourable: more potential buyers means more leverage, and a seller with genuine alternatives should be considerably slower to grant a long exclusivity period than one negotiating with the only interested party. The second is demanding: institutional and repeat buyers run thorough due diligence, expect proper documentation, and negotiate warranties and limitations as a matter of routine rather than as an afterthought. A business that would pass muster with a local trade buyer may not survive that scrutiny undocumented. The preparation work — written contracts, clean registers, IP in the company, employment terms in writing — matters more where the buyer is experienced, not less.

The Consents That Set Your Timetable

Dublin deals stumble on the same third parties as any other: the landlord, the bank, equipment lessors, franchisors and larger customers. Commercial leases in the city are frequently the binding constraint — on an asset sale the lease must be assigned and the landlord will generally need to consent, on their own timetable, and they may require outstanding breaches remedied first. Institutional landlords in particular are thorough and unhurried. Change-of-control clauses in banking facilities, software licences and corporate customer contracts are also more common where a business trades with larger counterparties, and those are triggered by a share sale, which is otherwise the structure that avoids consents. Identify every required consent at the outset and start the process in parallel with the documents rather than after them. That single sequencing decision recovers more timetables than anything else available.

Two Free Tools Before You Call

The Sale Structure Check walks the asset-versus-share question and what follows from each. The Readiness Check produces a gap list ordered by what will delay the deal or reduce the price. Both run on your own device — nothing stored, and neither is tax advice.

Selling, Buying, or Still Deciding?

What is being sold, whether an accountant has advised on structure, what is signed already, and whether there are employees and a lease. Conflicts are checked first, so name every party in your first email.

Call 01 5827148

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Business Sales in Dublin - FAQs

Rarely, and only where it suits. The work is documentary — the structure, the contracts, the lease, the accounts and what is being sold — and it is handled by telephone, email and video as effectively as in a room. Where you would prefer to meet, the Dublin office is The Ormond Building, 31–36 Ormond Quay Upper, Dublin 7. The firm also has an office at 2 Rose Inn Street in Kilkenny.

General information, not legal advice. This website contains general information about Irish law on business sales and acquisitions. It is not legal advice and does not create a solicitor—client relationship. Every transaction turns on its own facts — the structure, the documents, the parties, the consents required — and advice on yours requires a consultation.

Nothing here is tax advice, and tax drives structure. The choice between an asset sale and a share sale is very largely a tax question, and it should be settled with your accountant or tax adviser, and by reference to Revenue’s own guidance, before heads of terms are signed rather than afterwards. This firm does not advise on tax, does not state rates, thresholds, reliefs or conditions, and does not indicate any tax outcome.

No valuation advice. This firm does not value businesses, does not suggest multiples and does not advise on price. Valuation is for accountants and corporate finance advisers, and it is a separate exercise from the legal work.

Never both sides of the same deal. The firm acts for buyers and, in separate transactions, for sellers — but never for both parties to the same sale. Conflicts are checked at first contact, before any substantive discussion, which is why the first email should name every individual and entity involved.

No outcome or timeline is promised. Nothing on this site states or implies that a transaction will complete, that a consent will be obtained, that a warranty claim will succeed, or that any deal will proceed to a particular timetable. Where another jurisdiction is involved, the law of that jurisdiction applies to what happens there and requires local advice; this firm advises on Irish law only.

Fees. Fees are agreed in writing with the client at the outset. In contentious business, a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement.