Most Irish companies are family companies, and the hardest disputes we run are inside them: decades of informal promises, shareholdings that grew by history rather than design, and a fight where every affidavit costs Christmas dinner. The law brings the same tools as any shareholder war — what changes is how they should be used.
The Recurring Files
- The broken promise: years of underpaid work against “it’ll all be yours” — equity, company law and succession law assembled around the reliance;
- Sibling shareholder wars: the second generation outvoting and starving the third sibling — section 212 with surnames;
- The founder transition: authority that won’t pass, negotiated into a documented, dignified plan;
- Death and the register: shares passing through estates into unprepared hands — where this practice and the firm’s probate work run as one file (the TEP dimension);
- In-laws and exits: separations and estrangements colliding with the share register — run alongside the firm’s family law practice where needed.
Why Mediation Leads Here
In a stranger dispute, scorched earth is a strategy; in a family company it is a double loss — the wealth spent and the family with it. Mediation suits these files structurally: private, capable of solutions no court can order (roles, timelines, phased buy-outs, the founder’s continuing place), and faster than the relationship can rot. As a Law Society accredited mediator, Richard runs the assessment the Mediation Act 2017 requires from inside the room — while preparing the formal case that keeps every negotiation honest. The prevention version of this practice — agreements, constitutions and succession documents drafted before the fight — lives at shareholders’ agreements and governance, and it is the cheapest work we sell.
A Family Company Under Strain?
Before positions harden past repair - one call maps the rights, the realistic outcomes and the route that leaves a family standing.
Call 01 5827148