LAW FIRM Eversheds O’Donnell Sweeney has poached the five-strong healthcare team from its Dublin-based rival Beauchamps.

Beauchamps partner Aisling Gannon left the firm recently to set up a healthcare unit for Eversheds. She has been joined by three solicitors from Beauchamps – Dylan Gannon, Emma Hickey and Mark McCabe – and legal executive Aifric Hopkins.

Ms Gannon has represented a number of large hospitals, including the Mater Private, the Hermitage and Beaumont in Dublin. She has also advised a number of healthcare insurers.

She has worked with hospital management on risk and crisis management, and clinical and corporate governance issues, and been involved in the defence of employer’s liability, public liability and malpractice claims.

The loss of Ms Gannon and her team will be considered a blow for Beauchamps, which had established itself as the leading advisor to the healthcare sector over the past 25 years. The firm is led by managing partner Shaun O’Shea.

By contrast, these moves will be seen as a coup for Eversheds, which now has 25 partners. On the Beauchamps website, Ms Gannon was “praised for leaving no stone unturned in her efforts on behalf of clients”.

Commenting on the appointments, Alan Murphy, Eversheds’ managing partner, said: “We are delighted Aisling and her team have joined our firm, making Eversheds the market leading healthcare legal advisors in Ireland.”

Ms Gannon’s cases have included advising the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin in a High Court action taken by the parents of Jessica O’Brien, a girl from Cork who was brain damaged after her birth in 1993. Ms O’Brien was awarded a settlement of €4.5 million this month for negligence. The settlement was made without admission of liability.