Mason Hayes & Curran

Mason Hayes & Curran is a large Irish business law firm headquartered in Dublin, with offices in London, New York and San Francisco, reporting 124 partners and more than 600 staff. Its artificial intelligence practice is led by a named partner, Brian McElligott, the firm's head of AI. Clients typically arrive when they need to know where a product sits under the EU AI Act: the team advises on risk classification of AI systems, compliance planning for high-risk obligations, and strategy around conformity assessment for AI-enabled software and physical products. Alongside the regulatory work, the firm handles the commercial side of AI, including licensing and contract negotiation covering dataset ownership, model improvements and liability allocation, and runs policy training workshops for client teams. Related privacy questions, including GDPR issues raised by model training and automated decision-making, sit with the wider Data & Technology group headed by Philip Nolan. The firm maintains a public EU AI Act legislation hub and publishes an annual AI review. Work is scoped as legal advisory engagements and no fees are published. As a law firm it does not implement management systems, perform certification audits or act as a notified body; its role in conformity assessment is advisory. Client types it describes publicly include fintech providers, pharmaceutical companies, technology multinationals and retail AI businesses, none named.