Brian O'Malley is a partner in A&L Goodbody's Restructuring & Insolvency group. He is a specialist restructuring and insolvency lawyer and an experienced commercial litigator in Ireland's superior courts. Brian acts for all forms of stakeholder on complex domestic and cross-border mandates: debtors, creditors, insolvency practitioners, committees, boards of directors and management teams, funds and private equity firms, shareholders, and buyers and sellers in distressed M&A.
Brian advises across all forms of Irish restructuring and insolvency process: liquidations, receiverships, examinerships, schemes of arrangement and restructurings, both formal and informal. He has particular depth in novel, first-of-their-kind court-sanctioned solvent and insolvent restructurings and in matters involving the interplay between restructuring law and international sanctions regimes.
Areas of Expertise
Restructuring & Insolvency
Experience Advising:
- FinEx Funds ICAV and FinEx Physically Backed Funds ICAV, with AUM of c. US$1.8bn, as petitioners on the first court-supervised solvent liquidation of an Irish-authorised fund structure, designed to return capital to approximately 700,000 retail investors whose holdings were immobilised by the sanctioning of the Russian NSD.
- Endo International plc and 18 of its Irish subsidiaries on the first Irish Part 9 scheme of arrangement used to implement a US Chapter 11 plan in a c. US$8bn restructuring.
- Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson as Special Liquidators of IBRC on all aspects of the largest and most complex liquidation in Irish history with loan portfolio par value of c. €21bn on appointment.
- CVC Capital and Bank of America Limited as the senior lender group on the restructuring of Celtic Roads Waterford DAC, where we were the architects of Ireland’s only ‘motorway’ scheme of arrangement for the senior lenders with debts of over €200m.
- Cheyne Capital and the joint receivers on the restructuring of the Press Up Hospitality Group, Ireland's largest casual dining and hospitality group, including receiverships, a debt-for-equity swap and the injection of significant new investment.
- Kieran Wallace and Andrew O’Leary of Interpath (Ireland) Limited as Joint Liquidators of Digital River Ireland Limited and two related entities on a cross-border liquidation spanning seven jurisdictions with overall debt claims in excess of €400m.
- Mark Degnan and Brendan O'Reilly of Interpath (Ireland) Limited as Joint Liquidators of Euro General Retail Limited and Bushgrove Limited, with 77 stores and c. 600 employees.
- Carne Global Fund Managers on a novel High Court application under the Trustee Act 1893 to address unclaimed investor monies across 79 jurisdictions, obtaining all orders sought and facilitating the discharge of the trustee, State Street Custodial Services (Ireland) Limited.
- Aviation Capital Group LLC on the examinership of Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA and its Irish operations, one of the largest examinerships in the history of the State.
Market Recommendations
“Brian is a hugely competent lawyer with an innate ability to see around corners in complex issues.” (Chambers Europe 2026)
"Brian O'Malley - brilliant practitioner, very detailed, focused and methodical." (Legal 500 2025)
"Brian is a hugely engaged and informed lawyer who is communicative and innovative." (Chambers Europe 2025)
"Brian is very commercially aware, pragmatic and unflappable." (Chambers and Partners 2024)
"Brian... is precise, thoughtful and provides sound advice on complex matters." (Chambers and Partners 2024)
Professional activities
Brian is a member of INSOL Europe, INSOL International, Restructuring & Insolvency Ireland and the American Bankruptcy Institute. He has also co-authored the Irish chapter of ‘The Art of the Pre-Pack’, Global Restructuring Review, ‘Distressed M&A Transactions (Ireland)’, Thomson Reuters Practical Law and ‘Examinership: Overview (Ireland)’, Thomson Reuters Practical Law.
Education
- Solicitor, Law Society of Ireland
- MSc in the Business of Law, UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School, Dublin
- LLB, National University of Ireland, Galway
- BA (Legal Science and French), National University of Ireland, Galway
Brian O’Malley
Partner,
Restructuring & Insolvency
Dublin