FEBRUARY
2018 PURCHASING PROPERTY Steven Jacob
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK Dr. Constantin Gurdgiev
FAMILY BUSINESS SUCCESS STRATEGY SETTING BUSINESS GOALS FOR 2018 MEET THE TEAM RANGE OF SERVICES CAR RENTAL IS SET TO REVOLUTIONISE THE WAY WE DRIVE
75 CELEBRATING OVER
YEARS
IN BUSINESS
TABLE OF CONTENTS Purchasing Property Thomas Carroll
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Economic Outlook Dr Constantin Gurdgiev
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Family Business Success Strategy
10
Setting Business Goals for 2018
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Car Rental is Set to Revolutionise the Way We Drive
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Meet The Team
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Range of Services
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Welcome to the first edition of our newsletter for 2018. We hope you find the information contained in this issue of practical use. If you know someone for whom this publication could be of some use, just let us know and then we will add them to the mailing list. Our firm was established in 1941 and is a firm that is both deep rooted in tradition and eagerly looking forward to the future. Our fundamental purpose is to provide a competitive, efficient and personal service to each and every client. We are confident we have the necessary resources to provide you with astute legal advice and support no matter what your legal requirements are. We take the confusion out of your legal requirements with reliable and straightforward advice for every occasion. Please feel free to contact any of our team to discuss any issues that matter to you.
Thomas Carroll – MW Keller & Son, Solicitors
There are many issues that have to be dealt with when purchasing a property and it is imperative that a purchaser seeks legal advice. The steps set out below are a general guide to purchasing a property from a legal perspective. 1. A booking deposit will need to be paid and this is payable to the estate agent. The amount of the booking deposit will vary depending on the purchase price. This deposit will be refundable until such time as the contract for the purchase of the property is signed by both the seller and the purchaser and becomes binding.
6. The seller’s solicitor will next send the contracts of sale to the purchaser’s solicitor. All relevant documentation should be sent with this contract. The purchaser’s solicitor will arrange an appointment with the purchaser and the final details can be reviewed and amended if necessary. 7. The purchaser’s solicitor will suggest that the property be inspected for structural integrity and to check the boundaries. This is to ensure that a comprehensive inspection is carried out, and any flaws that the property may have or any boundary issues are uncovered so that the purchaser can make a well-informed decision regarding the purchase. An engineer or surveyor is best qualified to carry out such inspections.
2. Once the booking deposit has been paid, you should begin to look for a solicitor who is experienced with property transactions. It is important that you choose the right solicitor as the purchase of a property is often the most important purchase that people will make in their lives. An experienced property solicitor will ensure that any issues relating to the title of the property are uncovered before purchasing the property.
8. Once the purchasers solicitor is satisfied that everything is in order, the contracts will then be ready for signing. A sum of 10% of the purchase price (less any booking deposit) will be used as a contract deposit.
3. Most purchasers will have been pre-approved for a loan/ mortgage before paying a booking deposit. A purchaser will then have to contact their bank to confirm certain details and put various insurance policies in place. Once a purchaser has been approved for a mortgage, the bank will issue a Letter of Offer which sets out the details of the loan agreement. The purchaser’s solicitor will receive a Loan Pack which consists of mortgage documentation. The purchaser’s solicitor will review the Loan Pack and discuss and explain the details of same with the purchaser.
9. The seller’s solicitor will then return one part of the contract for sale to the vendors solicitor with the balance deposit. At this stage, the contracts become legally binding. 10. The purchaser’s solicitor will then raise queries with the seller’s solicitor known as Requisitions on Title. These will update the title from the pre-contract enquiries your solicitor would have received.
4. It is usually a requirement of banks that life assurance is taken out by the purchaser when a mortgage is obtained. It is better to try to arrange this as soon as possible as there may be a requirement to have a full medical review depending on your age and medical history.
11. Once all of the Requisitions on Title have been dealt with, the sale can move towards completion. This will only occur where the purchaser’s solicitor is satisfied that all legal matters are in order. 12. The completion of the purchase will take place at the seller’s solicitor’s office. The purchaser’s solicitor will carry out searches against the property and the seller and will check to make sure that everything is in order and transfer the purchase funds. The Auctioneer will be instructed to release the keys once the sale completes.
5. Another type of insurance that is required by lending institutions is property insurance. This should typically cover accidents that are reasonably foreseeable i.e. flood damage, fire damage etc. It is important that the insured value of the buildings and contents are representative of their actual value to replace.
Purchasing a house is normally the biggest investment a person can make and it is critical that this transaction is carried out both diligently and effectively. Property Solicitors deal with such transactions on a daily basis and have extensive knowledge in relation to same. It is advisable that legal advice always be sought before undertaking to purchase a property. For more information on the above please contact:
Thomas Carroll 3
051 877029 thomascarroll@mwkeller.ie
Dr. Constantin Gurdgiev
THE MARKETS TO GROWTH GAP: FINANCIAL MARKETS VS GLOBAL MACROECONOMIC FUNDAMENTALS The markets are heading into February, unperturbed by a series of stock indices gyrations, corporate debt yield lows, strong and sticky on the upside sovereign credit and real estate prices in key economies, and a steadily increasing stream of crypto-related ICOs, ETFs and institutional investment announcements. US Venture Capital funding has reached US$78.5 billion in 2017, the highest in history, surpassing for the first time the record set in 1999. All forecasts are green, even if with a growing sense of unease in the investment world. Beneath a relatively healthy façade, looking into 2018, global financial markets are showing signs of the excessive exuberance both in terms of the duration of the current bull market and in terms of market valuations. In line with this, investors’ appetite for risk is now moving sideways, matching expectations for continuation of a gradual, and shallow, unwinding of the past monetary stimuli, and renewed economic growth. The subdued volatility, however, is concealing a more complex story, better described not by risk-return expectations, but by growing uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity around the key factors shaping investors’ willingness to stay on risk-loving side of the fear curve.
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GLOBAL GROWTH Consensus forecasts for 2018 put global economic growth at around 3.7 percent, only marginally above the 3.63 percent real GDP growth estimated for 2017. And the sources of growth, geographically, are shifting against the current retail investors’ exposures. Advanced economies are likely to lead global growth to the downside in 2018, with the emerging markets expected to provide a more positive momentum to the global economic expansion.
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This stands in contrast to the latest data on investment portfolios allocations that shows the retail investors some 80:10 long equities and debt of the advanced economies. In other words, if the prospect for firmer growth is driving markets expectations for 2018, either the economic forecasters are missing the point by a mile, or investors are complacently herding into asset classes with negative exposure to global growth trends.
REAL GDP GROWTH, 3 YEAR PRE-CRISIS AVERAGE % CHANGE 7,44
7,00
6,00 Lowest growth capacity in the cycle 5,00
4,00
4,68
4,61 3,84
3,65
3,51
3,50 2,96
2,82
3,00
2,65 1,96
1,95
2,00
1,00
0,00
World
Advanced economies 2001-2002
Euro area
2008-2009
More ominously, as the chart above highlights, compared against the three year period prior to the two previous financial crises and recessions (the period of 2001-2002 crisis and 2008-2009 crisis), the last three years’ economic growth has been weak. This weakness reflects lower potential for the recovery post-recession should another economic crisis hit in 2018. It also implies shallower economic resources available to alleviate any potential contagion from the financial markets crisis to the real economy.
2017-2018
Emerging & developing economies Sources: IMF, BIS and Macroview.eu
new economic activity generated over 2016-2018 period (based on 2018 forecasts) is a third thinner than in the post-dotcom bubble crisis and more than a quarter weaker than in the run up to the Global Financial Crisis and the subsequent Great Recession. Which means that contrary to all the rhetoric about the great recovery, Euro area economy is still running with lots of underemployed capacity. Euro area’s output gap in 2017 stood at -0.525 percent of GDP, and the latest forecasts imply the gap shrinking, but remaining negative (at c. - 0.01 percent of GDP) in 2018. A new recession will likely bite harder into the households’ incomes and employment than the previous two recessions.
Notably, growth in the advanced economies and, more significantly from the Irish investors’ perspective, growth in the Euro area, today sits well below that in the years preceding the last two crises. In the case of the Euro area, the cushion of
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INVESTMENT cannot sustain current financial markets valuations. In effect, investment will barely keep pace with GDP growth across all major groups of economies, from advanced economies to emerging markets.
Much of the 2018 growth outlook is underpinned by expectation of slightly stronger aggregate investment in the advanced economies, and by improved aggregate consumption in the emerging markets. Aggregate investment is expected to rise from c. 25.39 percent of GDP worldwide in 2017 to 25.51 percent in 2018, the highest rate of investment in three years. That said, the rate of investment will be lower than in 20142015. This, put simply, is a marginal increase and simply
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The chart below shows average aggregate investment for the three year period immediately preceding the two previous crises, as well as the average for 2016-2018 period, using 2018 forecasts.
INVESTMENT AS SHARE OF GDP, 3 YEAR PRE-CRISIS AVERAGE 32,08
Highest investment in the cycle
30,00
25,00
23,87
24,95
29,22
25,38 23,83
23,33
22,98
24,01
23,17
21,10
20,58
20,00
15,00
10,00
5,00
0,00
World
Advanced economies 2001-2002
Euro area
2008-2009
2017-2018
Emerging & developing economies Sources: IMF, BIS and Macroview.eu
in the U.S., despite recent rate hikes and nominal interest rates are negative in the Euro area, despite the ECB halving its bond purchases. Financial conditions were also generally easier at the end of 2017 than a year ago. In the ECB’s case, an added problem is that the first tranche of some €750 billion of Targeted Long-Term Repos (TLTROs) will open to repayment around mid-2018. Analysts’ expect that some banks will repay the funds, cutting back on liquidity available for credit supply. If some 10-20 percent of TLTROs are repaid in 2018, the pool of credit-sustaining liquidity will shrink by some 2.55 months worth of ECB’s QE. Watch Summer 2018 for signs of credit conditions tightening, including in the already highly over-priced Irish credit markets.
Despite the historically low cost of funding, courtesy of the monetary policies of quantitative easing, a wide range of policy supports aimed at increasing credit in the advanced economies, and booming asset markets, the latest recovery has been largely investment-light. In 2004-2007, advanced economies run investment at an average 23.3 percent of GDP per annum (22.9 percent in the Euro area). Over 2010-2017, the advanced economies aggregate investment averaged just 21 percent of GDP (20.37 percent for the Euro area). The obvious problem is that the investment outlook worldwide is weak and it is especially weak for the advanced economies. The less obvious problem is that this weakness comes at the time when real interest rates are still negative
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INFLATION Global inflation outlook is expected to remain moderate, with worldwide inflation averaging only 3.3 percent in 2018, the highest since 2013, but still below 2009-2017 average of just under 3.5 percent. Price dynamics are hardly supportive of the equity markets valuations, as reflected in the expanding gap between equities and traditional inflation hedge assets, such as gold. While the process of the U.S. interest rates reversion to the historical mean is likely to continue at a similar pace to that of 2017, monetary policy will remain extremely accommodative in the Euro area, with 3-month Euro Libor expected to average -0.25 percent in 2018, compared to -0.326 percent in 2017, marking the fourth consecutive year of sub-zero rates. Meanwhile, on foot of robust 2017 expansion, credit growth is expected to slow down in the major advanced economies and China, while rising moderately in the emerging markets. In contrast, financial markets leverage (ratio of margin accounts debt to cash and reserve balances) is expected to continue climbing up from already high levels.
INFLATION, ANNUAL CPI, 3 YEAR PRE-CRISIS AVERAGE, PERCENT 14,00
12,00
11,60
10,00
8,00
6,00
7,22 5,73
Lowest ination and monetary policy slack in the cycle
4,88
4,32
4,00 3,09 2,30 1,74
2,00
1,92
2,19
1,39
1,05
0,00
World
Advanced economies 2001-2002
Euro area
2008-2009
Again, looking at 2016-2018 (including latest forecasts for 2018) averages, as compared against previous precrises averages, inflation outlook is worrying. A significant downside pressure on the real economy is more likely to trigger sustained deflationary dynamics in the present cycle,
2017-2018
Emerging & developing economies Sources: IMF, BIS and Macroview.eu
than in 2001-2002 and 2008-2009 crises. This holds for both, the advanced economies and for the emerging markets. The risk is more pronounced in the Euro area than in other key economies.
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FISCAL AND DEBT DYNAMICS On the other hand, Euro area fiscal policies remain more conservative, with Spain being the only block country with above-3-percent deficits. Into 2018, forecasts suggest further tightening of deficits.
The final part of the macro puzzle relates to the global fiscal and re-leveraging capacity. Accommodative fiscal policies are expected to play a role in lifting growth in some advanced economies over the course of 2018. Most notable amongst these is the U.S. tax reform that is highly pro-cyclical. While, at the time of writing, we do not yet have the official 4Q 2017 official GDP estimates, all indicators suggest that the U.S. economy is still on track to post above 3 percent growth for the third quarter in a row, the longest run of such prints since 1Q 2005. Adding to the tax reforms, upcoming Infrastructure Investment Bill and continued deregulation drive are further supporting U.S. economic resilience. Much of these changes are already factored into markets valuations.
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In simple terms, while the core macroeconomic fundamentals are likely to remain supportive of only gradual moderation in monetary policy excesses, credit and growth conditions are unlikely to sustain the recent rates of financial markets optimism, warranting a major financial markets correction. The risk is compounded by the already high levels of debt carried by the major economies around the world, courtesy of 2016-2017 credit expansion.
DEBT, PERCENT OF GDP, 3 YEAR PRE-CRISIS AVERAGE 318
300 278
Highest leverage risk in the cycle, except for Government sector, but ďŹ scal policy capacity is constrained by high central banks' balances
250
217
200
150
92
100
87
77 64
58
58
86
80 57
53
59
42
50
0
Non-Financial Corporations
Households 2001-2002
Government Sector Financial Corporations 2008-2009
As debt service costs rise along the path of increasing interest rates, the risk of a financial markets correction-induced liquidity blow-out start to loom larger. These pressures are likely to manifest themselves first in a continued increase in the broader uncertainty and ambiguity measures in the markets, only later spilling over into the volatility metrics, such as VIX indices.
8
2017-2018
Total
Sources: IMF, BIS and Macroview.eu
TAKEAWAYS Per above, the latest macroeconomic indicators suggest that investors’ expectations of a trouble-free 2018 are not anchored in reality. Structurally, rotation of the global growth drivers away from the advanced economies toward the emerging markets is consistent with some risk repricing in favour of improved ratings for a range of developing and middle-income countries. Chief in this process are the BRICS+ - a group of key emerging economies, including Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Turkey and Egypt. All, with exception of China and Turkey, are likely to see more positive developments in the domestic and global markets, and warrant some additional risk upgrades on foot of improving outlook for external trade, key commodities prices, domestic and regional economic growth, and strengthening in monetary conditions (Forex and interest rates comparatives to the advanced economies).
But, on balance, the above uncertainties and ambiguities are becoming more pronounced and acute as we move into late Spring. The engines of global growth are returning mixed results, and investors’ expectations for forward momentum are excessively optimistic. Something must give in order to reprice real and tangible risks. Past experience suggests that this giving in will be painful for a broad range of asset classes, most notably stocks and corporate bonds. New trends also suggest that a correction can be devastating for the new class of assets – the cryptocurrencies. And comparatives between the latest expansionary cycle and the previous growth periods preceding the last two crises implies that the giving in can be protracted and deep.
On the uncertainty and ambiguity side, key risks for 2018 credit outlook will remain similar to those that played out in 20162017: geopolitical uncertainty, regional policies volatility, potential for significant cybersecurity risks blowouts, cryptocurrencies bubble, and the large-scale imbalances built up in the advanced economies’ financial markets. The latter threatens emerging markets with a sudden stop to equity and debt inflows, resulting in a potentially sizeable sell-off of liquid assets by international investors.
Dr Constantin Gurdgiev is the Adjunct Assistant Professor of Finance with Trinity College, Dublin and serves as a co-founder and a Director of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation Ltd and the Chairman of Ireland Russia Business Association. He holds a non-executive appointment on the Investment Committee of Heniz Global Asset Management, LLC (US). In the past, Dr Constantin Gurdgiev served as the Head of Research with St Columbanus AG (Switzerland), the Head of Macroeconomics with the Institute for Business Value, IBM, Director of Research with NCB Stockbrokers Ltd and Group Editor and Director of Business and Finance Publications. He also held a non-executive appointment on the Investment Committee of GoldCore Ltd (Ireland) and Sierra Nevada College (US). Born in Moscow, Russia, Dr. Gurdgiev was educated in the University of California, Los Angeles, University of Chicago, John Hopkins University and Trinity College, Dublin.
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FAMILY BUSINESS SUCCESS STRATEGY
Let’s be honest, almost every company has some sensitive issues that most people avoid talking about. However, avoiding confrontation in a family-owned company can have dire consequences. Family feuds, resisting change, a high attrition rate rank as some of the top reasons why only 30% of family businesses survive to the second generation, and only 10% to a third generation. Add to the mix an inability to handle complex commercial, financial and legal issues, and your firm may face tough times. According to the Director of the DCU Centre for Family Business, there are two types of business: a family-first business and a business-first family business. Commercially focused, the second type has a better likelihood of success than those companies that put family interests first. The latter can run into much trouble as they may hire lazy offspring instead of capable outsiders. Mom-and-pop businesses tend to run into trouble when a person has given his or her life to the business, and is then unable to step down. It’s especially hard for a son or daughter to tell their parents to retire.
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Tenure in a Family Business Professional processes and structures can also ensure transparency in a family business. Well-documented ownership and shareholding agreements are crucial to a well-functioning family business. It should also include clear management structures, with one person in charge and clearly designated reporting structures beneath.
Successions don’t happen often in family-run businesses, which is another source of contention. While the average tenure in a multinational corporation is six years, the average tenure of a family-business CEO is twenty-three years. Likewise, in family businesses, the informal structure can create an environment that allows disagreement to be deeply personal, and they may escalate significantly. However, family businesses can professionalise their organisations, which would create a better foundation for succession and handling interfamily scraps at the same time.
Additionally, outsiders should be involved at board or management level, and at any level where particular expertise lacks within the family structure. Interestingly, three-quarters of Irish small and medium-sized businesses are family run, contributing more than half of Ireland’s national employment and gross domestic product. It is important for the country that family-run businesses survive beyond the second generation. Therefore, succession should be a methodical process that is well-defined and navigated through regular meetings that involve clear and open discussion.
Reporting structures are used with success in larger organisations, but family businesses may benefit from the same. By clearly defining responsibilities and business processes, family firms can become more businessoriented.
How to Ease Transition in Family Businesses Handing a family-business over to a second-generation can be complex and it can take years to define and clarify everyone’s role. In many cases, the founder will still come in daily, or at least several times a week. However, as the second generation becomes more confident in their abilities to run the business, the input will change.
Transition and succession can be simplified by allowing the founder to move from chief executive officer to chairperson. Alternatively, they may become an ambassador for the company, representing its interests as needed. Asian family businesses will bring the whole family along to a meeting with a client or supplier, including the éminence gris and they would prefer the same from family businesses they work with.
The secret to success is for everyone to respect one another’s ability to manage his or her own area.
Path to Success in Family Businesses work experience. Management level experience in a foreign family business would be a great example of valuable experience.
It’s not unusual for a family to grow faster than the business, but having an open-door policy where everyone is welcomed into the business can lead to ruin.
While generations waiting to be employed by the family business may not relish the idea, iit help to remember that it is much harder to compete against a bunch or strangers.
Businesses should lay down a set of criteria which family members who wish to work in the family business should meet. Consider elements such as relevant formal education, outside
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SETTING BUSINESS GOALS FOR 2018 This is a good time for companies to kick-start their target setting and revolutionise their performance management.
Studies have shown that companies that align the goals of individual employees with that of the organisation experience dramatic performance improvements. However, it can be challenging to set performance maximisation targets without experiencing harmful side-effects. Employees may try to achieve performance targets in ways that are not desirable to the organisation and negative attitudes can cause lack of motivation and a decline in company morale. Companies should be cognisant of data manipulation, which is another key concern in setting performance targets. It all starts with establishing the company’s mission and vision before bringing management and the employees into the fold. A company may opt to measure company growth by the number of lives that were impacted by their products, rather than the profits and income that was generated. Employees will feel that they are a part of something bigger than just a profit margin. Cynics might question the efficacy of such an altruistic view, but it does help employees and clients alike to form an emotional connection with the organisation. Mid-level managers who are tasked with negotiating reporting-related politics to senior managers may find motivational strategies more cumbersome. One way to handle that, is to figure out what motivates each individual staff member.
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Managers are faced with the mammoth task to establish performance targets and measures that provide direction and purpose to individual employees at different levels and in different parts of an organisation. There are four key areas to consider:
OWNERSHIP CULTURE Performance rewards can cultivate an ownership culture within an organisation. When a certain department achieves a performance target, the organisation could invest in technology or tools that will improve work conditions for them.
The financial and non-financial rewards employees will achieve for hitting performance targets should be considered regardless of the selected approach. Likewise, penalties for failing to reach a target are also important.
MONITORING PERFORMANCE Feedforward - information that enables organisations to learn and generate ideas, make plans and implement strategies.
Managers must implement an information flow system with adequate performance monitoring and learning support. To do so, managers must differentiate between and implement:
Ensuring that these systems are in place will support communication regarding targets and performance information.
Feedback - a tool that enables employees to undertake corrective actions.
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION AND EMPLOYEE EVALUATIONS Managers must consider whether it is worthwhile to use a different evaluation style in order to attain positive outcomes at the different organisational levels and in different settings.
The way in which performance information is used is the single most important factor that influences employee behaviour. Managers must consider the behavioural implications of a flexible or rigid performance evaluation. Rigid evaluation styles base evaluation purely on employees’ ability to meet targets. That means that employees who don’t achieve the targets will be given an unfavourable evaluation, irrespective of other factors, which might be considered in a more flexible approach.
In today’s competitive business climate, it is more important than ever to align organisational goals with employee decisions. Target setting and performance measures will continue to play a fundamental role in the business world, and managers have complex decisions to make. They must constantly reflect on their approaches and adapt them in order to maintain individual employee and organisational performance.
The flexible approach also uses target information as a performance indicator, but the evaluation is also conscious of other aspects.
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CAR RENTAL IS SET TO REVOLUTIONISE THE WAY WE DRIVE In the past, we felt the urge to own things: phones, accommodation and cars. However, experts have noticed how car usership is expanding as consumers re-evaluate how we commit or tie up our money in cars that sit unused for hours every day. But technology is changing our lifestyle and more people are asking whether they really need to buy cars, especially with the financial commitments of depreciation, tax and insurance.
The ability to monetise the downtime of their vehicles was a major selling point, and more than 20 car owners have already earned well over a thousand euro on the platform.
Car manufacturers also recognise this need to expand transport away from individual traditional sales to selling fleets of vehicles to pay-as-you-use companies. We’re transitioning to a driverless car pool. There will come a time when we are collected from home in the morning, and dropped at home after work. It will be as simple as booking through a smartphone app, and paid accordingly.
Companies and individuals use Fleet and GoCar to transport employees, to go shopping, or to bring children to school. Around 80% of GoCar vehicle users don’t own cars, and opt for public transport or riding bikes to work. Subscribing for the service is €10 and an average trip is €27. You will have to provide your credit card details and bona fides, but no monthly fee is required. Simply install the app on your phone and book your car. After your trip, you will have to return the car to the same place where you collected it.
Of course it will not be the only option. Those who opt to retain cars will still be able to use it occasionally. Irish pay-as-you-go car hire companies continue to expand. GoCar recently added five electric Renault ZOEs to the company’s existing fleet of BMWi3s. That brings the company’s fleet to 320 cars available at 200 locations. With a real-world range of up to 300 km, and the average user travelling only 30 km, there’s no need for range anxiety. And it only costs €10 an hour to use a ZOE.
Experts estimate that each hire car from this type of car-share service replaces up to 15 private cars. Paddy Magee from Renault was quoted saying; ‘‘Car-sharing is the future. And it’s coming quicker than you think.’’ He also encouraged car manufacturers to get on board with the trend.
Then there is Fleet, a new ‘Airbnb’ for cars which enables you to hire other people’s cars when you need to travel somewhere. You can also hire out your own car. This enables individuals to sell their unused cars while they still have value, and rent someone else’s car when they need it. If you wish to hold on to your car, you can put it up on the Fleet platform and earn back money to help with the costs.
Fleet reckons that hiring a car for just two days a week for a year costs €5,200, which is half of the average costs of running a car. The way consumers view transport is rapidly changing. But many of us still love and need our cars and for those of us, it will stay the same.
Within just five months, Fleet already had 12,000 subscribers and three hundred cars were already listed on the website.
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Thomas Norris
Michael O’Grady
managing Partner
Partner
Mr. Thomas M. Norris BCL qualified in 2002, and lives in County Waterford with his wife and two children. Thomas specialises in commercial property transactions and has extensive knowledge and experience in employment law matters, probate and administration of estates, landlord and tenant issues, banking matters and all aspects of commercial law including insolvency.
Mr. Michael O’Grady BCL qualified in 1993. Michael lives in Waterford with his wife and four children. He specialises in residential and commercial property matters, landlord and tenant issues, building law, banking, insolvency and commercial law.
Contact Thomas
Contact Michael
Direct Line: 051-840003 Email: tom@mwkeller.ie
Direct Line: 051-840002 Email: michael@mwkeller.ie
Margaret Fortune
Mark Keller
Partner
Consultant
Ms. Margaret Fortune BCL qualified in 1998, and lives in County Waterford with her husband and two children. Margaret specialises in family law, personal injury (to include dealing with all aspects of the PIAB), medical negligence, debt collection and all court matters and has built up a considerable reputation in Waterford in her areas of expertise.
Mr. Mark Keller is a Consultant in the firm and has now taken on a new role as Consultant Solicitor. Mark qualified as a Solicitor in 1978 and lives in Waterford with his wife and three children. He specialises in Licensing Applications, Landlord and Tenant, Insolvency and Commercial Law and Residential and Commercial Property Transactions. Mark is an Accredited Mediator.
Contact Margaret
Contact Mark
Direct Line: 051-840001 Email: margaret@mwkeller.ie
Direct Line: 051-840004 Email: mark@mwkeller.ie
Ian Cunningham
Julie Bermingham
Solicitor
Solicitor
Mr. Ian Cunningham BCL qualified as a solicitor in 2003. Ian recently joined the Firm having previously been with a large commercial law firm in Dublin and with one of Ireland’s largest Banks. Ian specialises in banking, insolvency, commercial law, commercial and residential property matters.
Ms. Julie Bermingham BCL, LL.M qualified as a solicitor in 2006. Julie has a first class Masters degree in European and Comparative law and a post graduate diploma in Technology Commercialisation. Julie specialises in family law, conveyancing, civil and commercial litigation, IP and all court matters. She also has extensive experience in the area of Probate.
Contact Ian
Contact Julie
Direct Line: 051 840006 Email: ian@mwkeller.ie
Direct Line: 051 840005 Email: julie@mwkeller.ie
Thomas Carroll
Steven Jacob
Trainee Solicitor
Trainee Solicitor
Thomas Carroll is a Trainee Solicitor with the firm. He is from Paulstown Co. Kilkenny and completed his LL.B. in Waterford Institute of Technology and then an LL.M. in University College Cork.
Steven Jacob began working with the Firm in February 2016 and is a Trainee Solicitor. He is from Tramore, Co. Waterford and completed his degree in Waterford Institute of Technology.
Thomas will be training with Michael O’Grady and will specialise in the areas of commercial conveyancing, residential conveyancing and commercial law.
Steven will be training with Thomas Norris and will specialise in the areas of conveyancing, employment law and all aspects of commercial law.
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RANGE OF SERVICES • ACCIDENTS AND PERSONAL INJURY
• EMPLOYMENT LAW
• MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE
• FAMILY LAW
• MEDIATION AND ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION
• PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS/ CONVEYANCING/ LANDLORD AND TENANT
• AGRICULTURE AND FARMING • COMMERCIAL AND CORPORATE
75 CELEBRATING OVER
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