The advice you would want if it were happening to you

We are deliberately small, and that is the point

Most firms our size are a stepping stone to somewhere larger. We set this one up because we wanted to do the work ourselves rather than supervise other people doing it. When you instruct Ó Braonáin & Kelly, the solicitor you meet at the first consultation is the one who drafts your pleadings, attends your WRC hearing and picks up the phone at half past six when the other side has just filed something.

That imposes a discipline. We can only take on work we can actually service, so we turn matters away — usually with a recommendation to someone who does that work better than we do. It also means we are unusually direct about the merits. If a case is weak, you will hear that at the first meeting rather than after eight months of correspondence.

Litigation is expensive, slow and stressful, and it is the right answer far less often than television suggests. Our job is to tell you which of those times you are in.

What that looks like in practice

• A written scope and fee estimate before any substantive work begins, updated whenever the scope moves.
• A named solicitor and a named point of contact, both reachable directly, never through a switchboard.
• Advice in the language you would use to explain it to your board, with the legal citation in a footnote where you need it.
• A view on commercial outcome, not only legal entitlement — including when settling early is simply cheaper.