BUSINESS OPINION: Ireland generates just 1% of European GDP, but is home to three of the 20 biggest law firms, writes JOHN McMANUS

HERE IS a provocative question. Are Arthur Cox and the other big Dublin law firms some sort of homegrown version of Goldman Sachs? Do their activities resonate with those of the Wall Street giant which was so famously described by Rolling Stone Magazine’s Matt Taibbi as a “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money?”

Well, the big firms certainly seem to share Goldman Sachs’ ability to be on both sides of a deal and not be overly troubled by conflicts of interest. Arthur Cox, it has to be remembered, felt able to advise the Minister for Finance last spring on how to restructure the banks while at the same time being the lawyers of Bank of Ireland and simultaneously working for the private-equity consortium that was engaging with the Government on investing in Bank of Ireland.

What they did was not illegal and something quite different to the allegations being made against Goldman Sachs by the US regulators, but the management of conflicts of interest is central to the criticism being levelled against both organisations.