Areas of Expertise
Colm is head of Maples and Calder’s Corporate team in the Maples Group’s Dublin office. Colm has extensive experience in company law and corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, venture capital, cross-border mergers and private equity investments. He has been involved in many of Ireland’s most significant equity financings and transactions involving Irish private technology companies. Colm also has extensive experience advising institutional financial investors and private equity investors investing in and acquiring Irish assets. His practice includes Irish inward investment projects and other cross border transactions. Colm is a sought after advisor to many of Ireland’s most successful venture-backed technology companies, having represented such companies as AMCS, Movidius and Web Reservations. He also has expertise in advising on the integration of Artificial Intelligence technologies with corporate and financial transactions.
Colm joined the Maples Group in 2007. He previously worked for a large Irish corporate law firm. Colm was recognised in the Business Post’s inaugural list of the Top 100 legal practitioners in Ireland and has been ranked as a leading corporate lawyer and recommended by a number of directories, including Chambers Global, The Legal 500 and IFLR 1000.
“Commitment to getting a job done. Availability – always at the end of the phone.” (The Legal 500 EMEA 2024)
“The go-to person in Ireland for high-growth, technology companies. He’s an extremely talented attorney who also is pragmatic in approach. He takes an incredibly strong interest in his clients and has unwavering commitment.” (The Legal 500 EMEA 2023)
“An outstanding commercial lawyer with vast commercial / legal knowledge and experience. Colm has been our ‘go-to’ external adviser for many years and has worked closely with the company through its evolution and successful growth over the past 10 years. Colm has a deep understanding of our business and therefore considers any question or transaction from both a legal and commercial aspect. His advice is not just legally sound, but practical and commercially focused. This together with his huge experience and ability to understand and advise on complex matters, timely delivery, coordination across multiple teams both internally and externally and his approachability makes him stand out from his peers.” (The Legal 500 EMEA 2023)
“His commercial awareness is a massive asset to any transaction. His practical and logical arguments give him the ability to mediate between the various parties which really speeds up the process and adds a lot of value.” (Chambers Global 2023)
“Acted on the other side of a transaction to me, but he was results focused, dedicated and high quality” (The Legal 500 EMEA 2021)
“Maintains a strong reputation for his significant experience in M&A deals in the technology sector. He is well-versed in venture capital transactions and equity investments, and acts for both sellers and buyers.” (Chambers Global 2021)
“Very good understanding of the Irish tech scene.” (Chambers Global 2020)
“Very sharp, engaged and hands-on in transactions.” (Chambers Global 2019)
“Superb – commercial, personable, capable, and tough.” (IFLR 1000 2018)
Colm is on the Steering Group for Scale Ireland. Scale Ireland is an independent non-profit providing the bridge between the start-up ecosystem and government.
It’s mission is to secure a more supportive policy environment that empowers Ireland’s innovation-driven enterprise to succeed and scale. Supporting Ireland’s innovative companies to scale is essential to safeguarding our collective economic future. The Steering group is made up of a diverse group of respected leaders from across Ireland’s start-up ecosystem.
Colm was a founder and director of the Fintech and Payments Association of Ireland (FPAI).
Bar Admissions
2002 – Admitted as a solicitor in Ireland
Education
University College Dublin, Ireland