Episode 18: David Carthy of DLA Piper Ireland: Business Building with a Focus on Values

Fiftyfaces Focus - Inspiring People in the Law

David Carthy is Managing Partner Ireland of DLA Piper. He was previously a partner at William Fry in Dublin as well as President of the Irish Exporters Association.. He previously spent over 7 years with the Ireland India Business Association where he spent 5 years as Chairman.
Our conversation starts with David's path into law and his early focus on the commercial aspects of his practice. He was intentional about building business networks through trade bodies and held various leadership roles in groups that grew in relevance as Ireland's role in international trade increased.
Moving to his role as Managing Parter Ireland at DLA Piper we detail how he built the business from scratch - where he was the first employee in 2018 to over 110 lawyers today. He details how he looked to other branch offices of the firm in order to develop a model as to how to grow the Dublin office and began to recruit using a values-based approach. The values that he focuses on are a global perspective - a comfort level with working with team members in a network around the world, as well as a boldness and comfort level with change. Finally, he seeks team members who are genuinely collaborative and go beyond paying lip service to this notion.
When the values are aligned around growth, collaboration and reach goals in this way, the organization grows in a cohesive way that can be diverse by design. David describes the intentionality with which he approached developing a diverse workforce and the office has significant female representation at all levels. We end with some words of wisdom relating to the satisfaction of working in teams and the introduction of balance between one's professional and personal life.