Expertise

Recent matters on which Conor has led and advised include:

• Offshore wind developers, investors, lenders and contractors on permitting, joint ventures and ‘stress testing’ of regulatory applications for over 2GW of Irish offshore wind capacity to be delivered over the next 5-10 years;
• Plenary Europe as sponsor on its bids for the Irish Social Housing PPP – Bundles Three and Four and the Dublin Family Courts Complex PPP;
• Cellnex SA on the sale of its Irish telecoms towers business (with almost 2,000 sites);
• Rabobank as lender to Ib Vogt / Highfield on the development and financing of four Irish solar farms (Rathnaskilloge, Gaskinstown, Clonin North and North Arklow) with a combined generating capacity of around 280MW;
• Real Assets Investment Management on the acquisition and financing of the operational N25 Waterford Bypass PPP demand risk toll road;
• Asterion on its acquisition of 80% of the National Broadband Plan project, a €3 billion State intervention to deliver high speed broadband (primarily by FTTH) to all underserved homes and business in Ireland.
  
• GLIL Infrastructure on its acquisition of the 453MW Rathcool Portfolio of 11 Irish onshore wind farms in the largest ever Irish onshore wind farm acquisition transaction by enterprise value (including detailed project contract due diligence and transaction document mitigations).
• AMP Capital on the sale of the Convention Centre Dublin PPP and Speed Fibre Group (including the holder of the Irish Metropolitan Area Network telecoms concession).
• EirGrid on its partnership arrangements with French transmission system operator RTE for the development and operation of the Celtic Interconnector between Ireland and France.
• Macquarie Asset Management on its potential investment in an Irish FTTH roll-out and a separate data centre campus opportunity and on its successful bid for and acquisition of Beauparc Utilities, Ireland’s largest recycling and processing led waste-to-resource business.
• A public body on all aspects of the decommissioning of the Kinsale Head and Seven Heads offshore gas fields.
• Bremore Ireland Port on the development of a new deepwater multi-modal port north of Dublin.
• A multinational developer and contractor on Ireland’s first large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) (one of the largest such installations in Europe) and similar additional facilities including system services equipment.
• Exolum Aviation on all legal aspects of its services concession to design, build and operate fuel storage and distribution infrastructure at Dublin Airport, from concession negotiation through construction and operations.
• Sponsors, lenders, contractors and FM providers on almost every Irish PPP, including:
  • Social Housing PPP Bundles 2, 3 and 4;
  • Dublin Family Courts Complex PPP;
  • Dublin Waste to Energy PPP;
  • Higher Education PPP – Bundle One;
  • Community Nursing Units PPP;
  • DIT Grangegorman PPP;
  • Primary Care Centres PPP;
  • N25 New Ross Bypass PPP, N25 Waterford Bypass PPP, M7/M8 Motorway PPP, M1 Motorway PPP and M3/M4 Motorway PPP;
  • Schools PPP Bundles 1 and 3;
  • Greystones Harbour and Marina PPP;
  • Convention Centre PPP;
  • Social Housing PPP Bundle 2; and
  • PPP-like Irish infrastructure projects including the National Broadband Plan (Conor advised the SPV / concessionaire on its winning bid), the Dublin Airport fuel concession (Conor advises the concessionaire) and the Metropolitan Area Networks concession (Conor advises the concessionaire).

Conor Blennerhassett is named a ‘Rising Star Partner’
 Project Finance: IFLR1000 2024

"Conor Blennerhassett is very responsive and always provides succinct and practical responses in a timely manner."
Projects and PPP: The European Legal 500 2024

"Conor Blennerhassett’s dedication to this relationship and deal is impressive. He is always available and front and centre on all communication."
Projects and PPP: The European Legal 500 2024

"Conor Blennerhassett is engaging, responsive and always makes himself available. Garret Farrelly provides calmness and security."
Projects and PPP: The European Legal 500 2024

“He is super responsive and always willing to help.”
Projects: Chambers Europe 2024

“Conor Blennerhassett has a reassuring presence with a wealth of knowledge.”
Projects: Chambers Europe 2024

"He is an excellent professional and looks for solutions and to resolve things in a fast and efficient way."
 Project Finance: IFLR1000 2023

"Highly commercial and knowledgeable across all project contracts in the renewables space. A solution-orientated  Project Finance: IFLR1000 2023

"Conor is an excellent communicator and extremely responsive. He has an in-depth knowledge of the law and what is market standard practice, provides commercial solutions and has become a trusted adviser to the business."
 Project Finance: IFLR1000 2023

"Conor Blennerhassett has been an outstanding lawyer to work with. He has been incredibly responsive and has provided top-tier advice. He develops a great understanding of the needs of a client quickly and consistently goes a step above by providing succinct advice that is easily understood by the business which demonstrates his depth of knowledge and expertise in the Projects and PPP."
Projects and PPP: The European Legal 500 2023

"Conor Blennerhassett is one of those individuals that go above and beyond what is required of him. He has a clear understanding of the deal and is able to explain issues in a way that is suitable for those who are unfamiliar with the law (particularly Irish law). Further, he was more than willing to assist with tasks that are outside of the original scope of the engagement as the deal progressed"
Projects and PPP: The European Legal 500 2023

"Conor Blennerhassett is a standout in relation to the depth of knowledge, commitment to timelines, and engagement during the negotiation stages."
Projects and PPP: The European Legal 500 2023

"Conor Blennerhassett is really exceptional."
Projects and PPP: Chambers Europe 2023

"He delivers excellent work."
Projects and PPP: Chambers Europe 2023

Conor Blennerhassett is ranked as a Rising Star
Projects and PPP: The European Legal 500 2022

“Easy to talk to, straightforward, straight talking friendly people. At the same time well able to pull on the jersey and fight for the team when the need arises. Conor Blennerhassett [was] particularly helpful.”
Projects and PPP: The European Legal 500 2022

"Conor Blennerhassett was extremely efficient and responsive, given our strict deadlines and timing for response assistance. We also found his expertise to be reliable and concise, considering the budgetary concerns and constrictions we had. I would highlight the firm’s greatest strength to be their thoroughness and quality of their work product combined with their responsive and strong client relationship, which we developed over the course of our project."
Project Finance: IFLR1000 2022

Conor Blennerhassett is ranked Rising Star
Project Finance: IFLR1000 2022

"He was exceptional in providing concise and thorough legal services. His strengths included establishing a strong client relationship. He was positioned as a trusted advisor on a major project because of his strong commercial understanding of the particular project. He was highly responsive and very friendly and easy to work with regardless of our time zone differences."
Project Finance: IFLR1000 2019

“Conor Blennerhassett was a true professional.”
Projects and PPP: Chambers Europe 2019

“Conor Blennerhassett went above and beyond to provide exceptional, timely and thorough legal services..”
Projects and PPP: Chambers Europe 2019

University College Dublin, Bachelor of Business & Law (European) (Hons), 2011

Admitted as a Solicitor, Law Society of Ireland, 2016