For the next MHC Intern Life, we talked to Brooke Reid Dwyer, a law with history student at University College Dublin. Brooke describes her first week as an intern here.
Doing an internship here has been an enlightening opportunity thus far. It truly provides prospective employees with a taste of what life is like in a leading Irish law firm. Any doubts and nerves I had about the next three weeks were quickly replaced by intrigue and excitement after our first day. We were greeted, bright and early in the morning, by partners, senior associates, associates and trainees from a variety of departments. These included Real Estate, Medical Law, and Dispute Resolution, all of whom would be mentoring and helping us through different stages of our intern journey.
Our first two days were absolutely jam-packed. We received extensive and informative training in areas such as HR, IT, Library Services and Health & Safety. We were given a tour of the gorgeous buildings of South Bank House and the historical Warehouse before having lunch in the cafe with the trainees. They kindly showed us their favourite lunchtime walk to down by the canal for some sunshine and fresh air- a walk us interns would continue to do for the remainder of the week. We were then shown our desks and met with our mentors for the first time, and I even had the opportunity to assist with some document filing in the Four Courts!
But it wasn’t all confined to the office. The next day, after a briefing session from some newly qualified solicitors describing the work they do in their departments, we went out for some team bonding! We headed up to GoQuest, an indoor challenge zone, to work together in teams to complete mental, physical and skill tasks in exchange for points. Although our team didn’t win, we still had a great laugh together. The fun continued after, when we went for dinner and drinks with some trainees and partners and got to discuss firm life and what it’s like to work with the firm over some delicious pizza.
The latter half of the week allowed me to get stuck into some work! I was given tasks to complete on both for my department and for the marketing and knowledge teams. I practiced my legal research through writing a case note related to Property Law and worked on my group project researching new guidelines introduced for personal injuries assessment. The different areas I was researching were varied and gave me a broad overview of two distinct areas of practice that I may wish to pursue in the future. The briefings from the newly qualified solicitors were also helpful in this respect, as they talked us through the different kinds of work they encounter in their departments, whether it be in litigation, advocacy or transactions. It allowed the interns to really get a feel of what their day-to-day lives would look like, as it is very different to the theory-based tasks and problem questions given to students in university.
The support I got from my department, as well as the responsibility I was given with different tasks was particularly exciting! I got to have a go at lots of drafting assignments, from letters to lease reports, and assisting in putting exhibitions together for Court. I sat in on team meetings and was talked through some of the important matters the team is currently working on. I got to visit the Law Society Regulation Department and gain an insight into some of the external organisations the firm works with regularly. I also got to know the department better, and had plenty of lovely conversations with the trainees, associates and partners.
On Friday night, we got to attend the annual summer party. It was a wonderful event organised by the firm with loads of food, drinks and activities to keep us entertained. It was a lovely opportunity to meet others in a more social and relaxed setting. The 99’s and climbing wall were an absolute highlight, and the fun we all had will be one of my fondest memories of the internship. It was great to be given yet another opportunity to bond with my intake.
My first week as an intern can be described in one word: busy! But thankfully, there was good mixture of work and fun! Lucky for us, June is Working on Wellness Month here. With free fruit and ice-cream, and lots of events like yoga and bracelet making, I expect the rest of my internship to be equally as busy, and equally as fun.
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