PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has won the race to become the first Big Five accountant to set up an affiliated law firm in Dublin.

Edward Evans, a partner with leading Irish firm William Fry, will head the new firm, which has not yet been given a name.

It is believed that PwC offered Evans £150,000 a year – a considerable sum within the Irish legal world.

Paul Downing, PwC head of corporate development and legal, said three or four other lawyers from the firm's Dublin operation would join Evans in March to help establish the office.

Downing said the Irish office could conceivably experience the same "spectacular" levels of growth as seen at other PwC law firms around the world.

James Grennan, head of the London office of A&L Goodbody, Ireland's biggest firm, said the move was no surprise. "Although Coopers & Lybrand never showed any inclination to do something like this, Price Waterhouse had been making it clear for a long time that it was on the agenda."

Grennan said he was not convinced that these developments were client-driven, despite such claims from accountants. "This is more likely a response to international pressure from the accountancy firms looking to create new areas of profit," he said.

Grennan said it is also doubtful whether accountancy-tied law firms could compete with the biggest firms in Ireland. "The jury is out on this," he said.

"In the UK the captive firms only get the medium-range work, and don't really get the premium stuff. This is a threat to the medium- and smaller-sized firms but not the bigger Irish practices."

Ken Murphy, director-general of the Law Society of Ireland, said he was contacted by a PwC partner shortly before Christmas, who told him about the plans to establish a new firm in Dublin which would be closely associated with PwC.

Murphy said the partner had insisted the new firm would not be a multi-disciplinary practice (MDP), a type of firm currently banned under Irish law and Law Society regulations.

Irish law prohibits solicitors from carrying on the practice of law on behalf of a non-lawyer.

Murphy said the Law Society was meeting to discuss the new development this week, and would be seeking a meeting with PwC over its plans.