DLA Piper has appointed Maura Dineen as Country Managing Partner of its Ireland practice, placing her at the head of the global law firm's Dublin operation. The appointment took effect on 1 September 2026.
Maura Dineen succeeds David Carthy, who built and led the Irish practice from its launch in 2019 and now continues at the firm as a corporate partner. The orderly handover caps a period of steady growth for the office, which has expanded to around 130 lawyers and staff since it opened.
Dineen joined DLA Piper in 2019 as a tax partner and has since become one of the most visible members of the Dublin leadership team. Her practice spans corporate tax, structuring and advisory work for domestic and international clients, and she serves on the Council of the Irish Tax Institute, a role that has kept her close to policy debate on the country's tax regime.
In taking the top job she inherits a practice that has positioned itself around the sectors driving the Irish economy, including technology, life sciences, financial services and real estate. DLA Piper operates one of the largest legal platforms in the world by headcount and revenue, and the Ireland practice functions as its gateway for inbound investment into a market that remains a favoured European base for multinational business.
The Dublin office sits within a network that spans more than 40 countries, and its leadership carries weight beyond Ireland because so much of the work is cross border. Dineen inherits client relationships across corporate, finance, litigation and regulatory practices, and her early priorities are expected to include building out sector teams in the areas where Irish demand is strongest.
Dineen has signalled that continuity rather than reinvention will define the early part of her tenure, with a focus on client service, talent retention and deepening the office's links to the wider DLA Piper network. The firm has made succession planning across its country practices a priority as several of its founding local leaders move into new roles.
The appointment also reflects a broader pattern in the Irish legal market, where firms are elevating partners with tax and transactional backgrounds into management as clients navigate a more complex regulatory and tax environment. Her technical grounding sits close to the questions that most occupy the corporate client base.
Carthy's move to a full time corporate practice role keeps his client relationships within the firm while freeing Dineen to set the strategic direction. For DLA Piper, the transition preserves institutional memory at a practice that has grown quickly and now carries a larger share of the firm's European ambitions.
