Mason Hayes & Curran chairperson, Meta's lawyer was going to attend cancelled Peter Thiel event

Two senior tech lawyers at Dublin law firm Mason Hayes & Curran – including its chairperson and Meta’s external Irish counsel – were going to attend Peter Thiel’s cancelled Dialog event in the Powerscourt Hotel. 

According to records obtained by The Ditch, chairperson and partner Philip Nolan and partner Oisín Tobin were set to go, with Nolan having attended more than 30 previous Dialog events.

Both practice in technology and privacy law at the firm that counts Meta, Twitter, Adobe, Qualtrics and Verizon Media among its clients. 

Last week the Powerscourt Estate announced the event – first reported as taking place in Wicklow by The Ditch – won’t take place.

It had been scheduled for August and other Irish registered attendees included senator Lynn Ruane and energy regulator Tanya Harrington. 

‘Bill Clinton has a better hand shake’

Dialog kept lengthy profiles on both Philip Nolan and Oisín Tobin noting both are experts in Irish tech law. 

Firm chairperson Nolan had attended 34 previous events and moderated two sessions and four meals over approximately two to three years. 

The sessions Nolan took part in at previous Dialog gatherings included talks titled Does Might Make Right?, War in the Middle East, America Post-Exceptionalism, China's Global Reach and Playing the Global Power Game.

His LinkedIn profile  says he focuses on “global data structuring, privacy enforcement and litigation having worked across many areas of data protection”.

Tobin, also a partner in Mason Hayes & Curran’s tech department, according to his LinkedIn profile “focuses on advising and defending leading web and cloud computing companies and counselling high potential start-ups”. 

Dialog's profiles rate members, gather biographical information about them and store written sections each has submitted. Both Nolan and Tobin are listed as having a "Bio grade" of "B." 

Nolan's profile, where he was asked to give a fact, says, "Bill Clinton has a better hand shake and holds better eye contact when shaking hands than Mikhail Gobahev” and that his "first job was on a farm and I reckon my last one will be a farm based one too”.   

In a prediction submitted before a previous event, Nolan told Dialog that "the 2040s will be a post-war decade where globalisation will be back" and that the UN "won't exist" with its successor centred on managing the climate crisis. 

Tobin's profile notes his first business was a video production company making short YouTube-style videos "before YouTube was a thing" – he had to delay incorporating the company until his 18th birthday so he could legally sign the paperwork. 

It "failed miserably," he wrote. 

Tobin also said he is approaching 40 years old and "currently working out what to do for the second half of my life”. 

Records show that Nolan nominated Tobin to attend the Dialog Powerscourt event. 

Previous attendees of the secret society's events include Palantir CEO Alex Karp, Anduril's Palmer Luckey and US senator Ted Cruz.

Nolan and Tobin have been contacted for comment.