Family company disputes are shareholder disputes with a second file attached, and the second file is usually the heavier one. The commercial issues are drawings, roles, succession, valuation and covenants. The real issues are who worked harder, who was favoured, who was promised what, and who has been carrying whom. Only one of those sets gets adjudicated in court, and it is not the one driving the conflict.
Why Court Is Particularly Poor Here
A judgment in a family company case settles the ownership question and leaves everything else intact and worse: the relationships, the Christmases, the funerals, and the next generation who inherit both the shares and the grudge. The proceedings themselves are public, which for a family business means suppliers, staff and the town read about it. And the cost lands twice — on the company, which funds the fight out of value everyone owns, and on the family, where the currency is not billable. Meanwhile the thing that would actually resolve matters — someone acknowledging what happened, or explaining why a decision was taken decades ago — is inadmissible, irrelevant and unavailable in a courtroom.
Holding Both Layers in One Room
Mediation can do what neither a board meeting nor a hearing can: let the twenty-year conversation happen once, confidentially, with someone neutral holding the structure — and then convert the outcome into terms that are documented and enforceable. In practice the day runs on both tracks. The relationship track: what each person actually feels owed, what was said and by whom, what recognition is being sought (and it is frequently recognition rather than money). The commercial track: an exit or a restructure, staged payments geared to what the company can bear, roles and remuneration formalised where someone has worked for years on nothing more than an understanding, an agreed valuation basis, provision for a parent still involved, and governance that prevents the same collision next time. The settlement binds as a contract, the implementing documents are drafted alongside so the agreement is real, and the tax questions — which in family transfers can change the value of everything — go to your accountant and Revenue’s guidance before signature. Where the business is a farm or the dispute is really about succession, the succession page covers the same ground with the land dimension added.
Who should be in the room is the question families get wrong most often. Excluding the sibling with no shares but considerable influence, or the parent who founded the business, produces an agreement that unravels at the next family gathering. Design the attendance honestly — including the people it would be more comfortable to leave out.
A family and a company at cross purposes? 01 5827148 — confidential from the first call.
Richard O’Shea — Solicitor & Mediator
Solicitor at Mary Molloy Solicitors (established 1981), holder of the Law Society of Ireland Diploma in Mediation and a TEP of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. Mediations are conducted at The Ormond Building on Ormond Quay, at the firm’s Kilkenny office, at neutral venues, at the parties’ own premises — or fully online. Fees are agreed in writing with all parties before any mediation begins. 01 5827148 · richardoshea@marymolloysolicitors.com · LinkedIn
General information, not legal advice. The content of this website is general information about mediation and Irish law. It is not legal advice and does not create a solicitor—client relationship. Every dispute turns on its own facts, and advice on yours requires a consultation.
The mediator is not your legal adviser. Where Mary Molloy Solicitors is appointed as mediator, the mediator is neutral: the mediator acts for no party, advises no party, and does not decide the dispute. All parties are encouraged to take independent legal advice, and in particular to take advice before signing any mediation settlement. The firm does not act as mediator in any dispute in which it acts, or has acted, for a party — conflicts are checked before any appointment is accepted. Where the firm is instructed as solicitor for one party in a mediation, it acts for that party alone and does not act as mediator in that dispute.
Fees. Fees for mediation are agreed in writing with all parties before the mediation begins, and fees for legal services are agreed in writing with the client at the outset. In contentious business, a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement.
Tax. Nothing on this website is tax advice. Where a dispute or its resolution has tax consequences — succession, business transfers, property, compensation payments — those questions belong with your accountant or tax adviser and with Revenue’s own guidance, and are best addressed before any settlement is signed.