Stuart Margetson

Stuart Margetson is a retired Irish litigation lawyer turned angel investor. He practised as a solicitor from 1979 to 2016 and spent the bulk of his career at Matheson (formerly Matheson Ormsby Prentice), the Dublin-headquartered international law firm, where he was a Partner from 1986 in the Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Department. He moved to a Consultant role at the firm from April 2012 to December 2016. His practice specialisms included general commercial litigation, product liability law, environmental law, and dispute resolution/mediation.

Alongside his litigation career, Margetson built a parallel profile in alternative dispute resolution. He has been a CEDR-accredited mediator since 2002 and a Mediators' Institute of Ireland (MII) certified mediator since 2012, and he runs Margetson Mediation. He has also held an honorary vice-president role with the Irish Environmental Law Association, reflecting his environmental-law specialism. He is now a non-practising solicitor.

After leaving full-time practice, Margetson became one of the founding backers of Johnson Hana, the Dublin legal-process-outsourcing start-up founded by former barrister Dan Fox. He was part of the group that raised roughly €1 million to capitalise the business, and he served as its Chairman and a Director from January 2016 until October 2019, helping the company get off the ground as it began trading in earnest from offices in Howth, Dublin in 2017.

Johnson Hana went on to become one of Europe's leading "alternative legal services providers," with clients reported to include Stripe, Airbnb, Citibank, X and OpenAI. In June/July 2025 the company was acquired by US agentic-AI legal-tech firm Eudia in a deal reported at around €42 million — the exit that closed out Margetson's seed-stage involvement.

• Stage: Seed-round angel investing — Margetson backed Johnson Hana at its 2016/2017 seed stage.
• Sector: Legal services and legal process outsourcing (B2B), an area aligned with his decades as a commercial litigator and mediator — investing where his domain expertise lets him add board-level value, not just capital.
• Hands-on involvement: His pattern is the engaged angel — he didn't just write a cheque but took the Chairman and Director seat, suggesting he favours opportunities where he can contribute governance and industry credibility.
• Co-investing alongside experienced operators: At Johnson Hana he invested alongside Enterprise Ireland and notable figures including Dan Kiely (Voxpro co-founder), Kevin Murray (former DCC managing director) and Brendan Coakley (former Allegro chairman).