Areas of Expertise
Stephen is a partner of Maples and Calder’s Funds & Investment Management team and leads the Financial Services Regulatory team in the Maples Group’s Dublin office. His practice primarily involves representing investment firms and financial institutions in connection with Irish regulatory matters. Stephen’s specialist areas include the regulation of investment services in Ireland under the MiFID regime and the UCITS / AIFMD regimes for management companies.
Stephen is a key member of the team at Maples focussed on sustainable finance and assists a wide range of financial institutions on the introduction of SFDR, the Taxonomy Regulation and associated EU sustainable finance measures.
His regulatory expertise captures matters of EU law including AI, IFD / IFR, EMIR, SRD II, SFTR and the Securitisation Regulation.
From an Irish perspective, Stephen assists clients with various regulatory matters such as new entity authorisations and advisory work in areas including fitness and probity (and SEAR), client asset rules, AML / CFT and Central Bank of Ireland engagement across the supervisory spectrum. Stephen has extensive experience advising clients on the establishment and operation of Irish regulated investment funds with a particular focus on UCITS regulation as well as significant experience in AIFs authorised under the Irish AIFMD regime.
Stephen joined the Maples Group in 2010 from a large Irish corporate law firm, where he was partner and head of investment funds. He was also previously a partner in a leading Irish law firm, during which time he managed the firm’s Tokyo office, with responsibility for Asia. Stephen has spent time on secondment working for a leading US law firm and in a leading law firm in Australia.
Stephen has been ranked in The Legal 500 as a “Leading Individual” and in IFLR 1000 as “Highly Regarded”. He has also been recommended by Chambers Global where clients report that Stephen: “has exemplary technical knowledge, great communication skills and delivers very clearly and succinctly” “is an excellent problem solver who thinks outside the box” “is very pragmatic and commercially focused” and “is excellent in providing technical advice in a commercial way“.
Stephen regularly publishes in various financial services and legal periodicals. He also presents at international conferences on Irish financial services regulatory matters. He is the Irish Funds representative on EFAMA’s Fund Regulation Standing Committee.
Bar Admissions
2002 – Admitted as a solicitor in Ireland
Education
Trinity College, Dublin, 1998