Description

Junior Certificate 2013: 11 Honours

Leaving Certificate 2016: 6 Honours, 1 Pass

Third Level Education:

NUIG Galway

1^st Class Honours (1.1) degree in the Bachelor of Corporate Law with the LLB included and Legal French at National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG)

Overall result for degree:

70% – 1^st Class Honours (1.1).

Also, finishing with a 1^st Class Honours in Legal French

Ranked 3^rd in my class out of 70

Languages:

Fluent English

French – Leaving Certificate and Third Level French achieving a 1.1 average in the subject

Irish – Honours Irish at Leaving Certificate

Hobbies and Interests:

I am a highly active person and always love to be on the go. I played hockey with my local hockey club Galway as a junior where I got Connacht trials. I played A level hockey in secondary school, and as part of Transition Year, the A Hockey team travelled to Belgium for the National Schools Competition, where we competed against some of the best schools around Europe, placing 2^nd.

I was also a tennis fanatic where I was a member in Galway Lawn Tennis Club (GLTC) where I trained on the Connacht team as a junior. I continued to play tennis as a senior and throughout college, and have played in many competitions both locally, and away, and was part of the NUIG College Tennis Varsity team where we played against UCD, DCU, UCC, Trinity, UL, and Queens University Belfast.

Since I came to limerick, I have continued to play tennis and recently joined Catholic Institute where I enjoy a social game of tennis in the evenings or at weekends. I will continue to play there for the summer months, getting involved in competitions and leagues.

I have continued to stay active while working in Holmes, such as getting involved in the Moore Morning River Run in aid of suicide prevention, and this has allowed me to stay fit and healthy, while enjoying an outdoor activity with friends and colleagues.

Skills:

I have great communication, social and teamwork skills, along with being hard working and organised. I have also demonstrated great leadership skills in many of my hobbies and work.

I have developed these skills throughout life experiences, such as being a member of my hockey and tennis team, and also working with both children and adults in Galway Lawn Tennis Club for 6 years. I am Garda Vetted and have completed a Safeguarding Course with Sport Ireland, which has proved me to be a very reliable and responsible person. This allowed me to run summer camps for children, the children’s community tennis programme at weekends, and social tennis for adults. I have also worked with blind tennis for adults alongside the other coaches.

I am a very hardworking and enthusiastic person especially when it comes to doing well in my school and college exams. I work well under pressure, and thanks to being well organised, I always succeed in tight deadlines. I have the ability to work as part of a team, and I am eager to learn from new people in the outside world. For example, as a module in final year college, I took Moot Court. I wanted to challenge myself towards the end of my degree with a different kind of subject. Moot Court was something I had never experienced before in college, and this entailed working in groups to achieve a common goal. I obtained a 1.1 in this module. I also did Independent Research as a module in final year. This involved choosing a legal topic of choice and researching it in much detail. The area of law I chose was Tort Law and researched Medical negligence in depth, where I actually conducted an interview on this topic with a Solicitor based in RDJ Galway. I decided to base my research on this topic as this field was very personal to me. Although both of these modules were demanding and challenging, they were also very rewarding and enjoyable. This module involved working under pressure, communicating with others, and being well organised.

Overall, I have a very positive outlook and always aim to succeed.

Work Experience and Jobs:

As part of my Transition Year programme, I had to gain work experience in the outside world. I got the chance to do part time work in my local tennis club as an assistant coach alongside my brother who is a qualified tennis coach. This involved working with children and helping them to develop their tennis skills. I took on a lot of responsibility in the job as I was working with kids who were very young. This helped to build my public speaking and social skills which are very important in any job. I worked as a part-time assistant tennis coach for 6 years in Galway Lawn Tennis Club with both adults and children. I have helped run the children’s tennis camps every summer with the other coaches, and have also organised the community tennis programme at weekends. I have worked with the famous Billy Bolster Tennis Camp in Kilkenny and have also travelled with the Connacht Tennis team for competitions to supervise and help out. I believe that sport plays a very important role in any job, it develops ones social and communication skills which is essential in achieving the best in your career.

For my Clinical Placement Module in final year of college, I was very fortunate to gain some experience in a well known local Solicitor’s Firm in Galway. I worked with W.B Gavin & Co, Solicitors for the course of ten weeks which offered me a valuable insight to the real world of a legal environment. Throughout my placement, I sat in on various solicitor/client meetings, for example the making of a Will and Mortgage Documentation, both of these were very valuable experiences. I was performing tasks in administration, organisation and also in the drafting of legal documents. The theoretical side of the law in University does not deal with the practical side of the law which is hugely important, and therefore this work experience proved to me that the real world of law is fast moving and exciting. I discovered that it requires certain skills such as being able to think on the spot, as-well as adapt to the various facets of law in each individual case. This experience definitely increased my understanding of the world of work, and improved my skills required for the legal environment. I have proven that I can take on any new challenge and embrace it fully.

When I finished my four year degree in May 2020, I decided to take a gap year from my studies. I continued to work part time in the tennis club, and also went to work with my father who is a practising solicitor in Galway to earn some further experience. He is a sole solicitor who has over 4o years experience in conveyancing and probate law, along with family law, and litigation. While working here, I developed my practical understanding of the legal world, and challenged myself in many daily tasks which were new to me. Much of the work consisted of administrative duties, however, I attended many court hearings. While working there, I began to study for my FE-1 exams. I applied for an internship in Holmes O’ Malley Sexton, and began working for them in late summer 2022.

Current position:

I am currently doing my internship as legal assistant with Holmes O’ Malley Sexton in Limerick, where I have now worked for 10 months. I began in litigation, but was soon switched to employment law, where I worked for a Partner. I thoroughly enjoyed all my time working in employment law, and got on very well with my team. At the beginning, I would assist the Partner/Solicitor in various tasks, such as researching queries regarding employment matters for clients, amending contracts of employment with guidance from the Solicitor, drafting email responses, preparing briefs and booklets of submissions for the WRC. As time went on, I found myself getting heavily involved in helping the Partner/Solicitor prepare for WRC hearings which mainly occurred over zoom due to covid, however I was fortunate to attend some in-person hearings with the Partner. I learned a lot from attending in person hearings, and felt that I had gained a better insight into the legal matters. I can proudly say that I was partially involved in assisting with the ESG article for the Holmes Newlestter, and did a lot of research for the various aspects of the article. I attended online ESG talks/discussions with a US company, which involved various discussions around ESG within a firm.

I got the chance to move into a different department, and was fortunate enough to gain experience in the corporate sector. This was a big shift from employment law, but one that will stand to me in the future. I had to apply many of my skills, such as adapting quickly to this change, however this has proven me to be a very strong and hard working person. I have been preparing CRO filings, such as annual returns for various companies, completing company registers, ordering company seals, drafting emails, amending company board minutes, researching company queries, preparing bibles for companies, and ensuring that company directors have their documents up to date. I have learned so much in such a quick timeframe, and believe that this change has benefitted me for the best. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Holmes, and hope that this continues.