Customs and Trade Law

Dara Higgins is a partner in the Tax Department of Matheson specialising in Indirect Taxes.

Dara advises clients on VAT, Customs and Trade law, Excise and Relevant Contracts Tax. Dara advises on Indirect Taxes across all industry sectors including, real estate and construction, financial services, import / export, technology, aviation, energy and pharmaceuticals.

He also has significant experience in the area of tax controversy and regularly acts for clients in the context of tax appeals and audits and investigations. Dara has a broad client base consisting of both domestic and international clients, many of which have complex global supply chains.

Dara is a qualified Solicitor and Chartered Tax Advisor.

Matthew Broadstock is a partner in the Tax practice of Matheson, where he heads the Indirect Taxes group, specialising in cutting-edge VAT developments at both Irish and EU levels as well as advising on Customs and Excise matters, and Relevant Contracts Tax.

Matthew is a member of the Law Society Taxation Committee and is Chair of the Indirect Tax TALC Consultative Committee on behalf of the Law Society during 2025.  Matthew plays a pivotal role in shaping Ireland’s indirect tax dialogue with the Revenue Commissioners.

Simon is a partner in the Competition and Regulation Group at Matheson.

Simon advises on all aspects of EU and Irish competition and regulatory law with a particular focus on regulated sectors primarily the telecoms, media, technology, infrastructure, food & beverage and life sciences sectors.

Simon also co-leads Matheson’s Foreign Direct Investment / Foreign Investment Review practice advising businesses on navigating Ireland’s new FDI regime and acquisitions of ‘critical’ and ‘sensitive’ assets and businesses.

Kate is a partner in the Competition and Regulation Group.

Prior to joining Matheson, Kate worked at a Magic Circle law firm in London.

Kate’s competition practice involves advising clients on merger control, behavioural competition issues (including investigations of alleged collusion and abuse of dominance), State aid, the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, Foreign Investment Screening regimes & public procurement competition issues.

Niall is a partner and Head of the Competition and Regulation Group.

He has extensive experience advising Irish and multinational businesses on all aspects of Irish and EU competition law, but particularly on complex merger control mandates.

Joe Beashel is a partner in the Financial Institutions Group and is Head of Matheson’s London office.

He is a solicitor with thirty years’ experience almost all of which were gained in the financial services sector. Before joining Matheson in 2004, he was the country head of the Irish fund administration unit of Invesco plc, a leading international investment manager.

Joe and team assist clients with the authorisation of new financial service providers by the Central Bank of Ireland including banks, MiFID / investment firms, fund services providers, alternative investment fund managers, payment and e-money institutions, retail credit firms and others.

He also assists client firms where they wish to expand their existing regulatory permissions.

Karen is a partner in our Disputes and Investigations team and leads our multi-practice Regulatory Investigations Group. Karen has almost 20 years experience acting for clients in high stakes commercial and regulatory disputes and investigations.

Karen has acted in some of the most high, profile Commercial Court cases in recent years, and the most significant Central Bank investigations.  Karen regularly advises boards and senior management in all aspects of their regulatory engagement, their communications with stakeholders and how to mitigate and navigate commercial and reputational risk, to secure optimum outcomes in contentious matters.  She is an advocate of alternative dispute resolution and has negotiated positive settlements to secure confidential resolutions for clients in many cases.

Rory McPhillips is a partner in the Finance and Capital Markets Department.

Rory has considerable experience in advising financial institutions, equity participants, export credit agencies, commercial and investment banks, airlines, aircraft leasing companies and others in a wide range of matters over a number of years.

He represents clients in the financing and leasing of aircraft, railcars, engines, simulators, trucks and industrial equipment, and routinely handles all Irish aspects of financing structures established across multiple jurisdictions with aircraft and other assets deployed globally.