John Given

John Given joined Philip Lee in October, 2019 and is a partner in the Corporate Department specialising in high level corporate advisory and transactional work.

Prior to joining the firm, John gained experience across multiple sectors and in various roles, including as General Counsel and Executive Vice President of a globally focused public company, as Senior Executive, Co-founder and/or Chairman of a number of public and private companies, and as a senior Corporate Partner with another leading Irish law firm.

In his legal practice, John’s focus is on providing pragmatic, strategic and innovative advice to leading Irish and international companies across a range of industry sectors. John has acted as lead external Counsel to many of Ireland’s largest companies including two of the top three companies on the Irish Stock Exchange (now EuroNext Dublin), as well as acting as external corporate/M&A Counsel to a number of the world’s leading companies on their Irish interests.

“John Given as usual attracts a lot of praise from clients and peers. He’s more commercial, practical and sensible than many other lawyers.” (IFLR1000)

“. . . the excellent John Given”, (Who’s Who Legal – M&A)

“Versatile, practical and sensible.” The Legal 500

Deals on which John has acted have ranked as some of the biggest and most complex in Irish corporate history and have received many accolades, including Finance Dublin magazine’s prestigious “Deal of the Year” multiple times. John has been awarded the accolade of ‘Best M&A Lawyer’ for Ireland by the European CEO Legal Awards.  During a decade as head of M&A in his previous practice, the firm was ranked as no.1 Irish M&A adviser for 10 successive years.

As a corporate leader, John has also been involved in many signature deals.

• As General Counsel and EVP of Elan Corporation plc, John played a leadership role in Elan’s 3 successful hostile takeover defences and its subsequent company-led $9b plus sale to Perrigo Company.
• The IPO of Malin Corporation, which John co-founded and led as Executive Chairman, was the 2^nd largest ever flotation of a European life sciences company. Under John’s stewardship, the company delivered high double-digit returns to shareholders.
• Under John’s Chairmanship, Sigmoid Pharma Limited (renamed as Sublimity Therapeutics) conducted a strategic process resulting in the largest private equity fundraise by a clinical stage Irish pharmaceutical company.

John is Chairman of Ireland’s leading indigenous insurance brokerage and advisory business, Campion Insurance, and serves on a number of other boards.

Read article by Joe Brennan in The Irish Times here.