MHC Intern Life: Conor Irvine

As part of our MHC Intern Life series, trainee Conor Irvine tells us why he got into law and his love for ice hockey.

Talk us through a typical day for you

At the moment, I am working on two teams - the Public Regulatory and Investigations (PRI) team and the Corporate Charities team.

With the PRI team, I can do anything from assisting with the drafting of pleadings, attending court or doing research on the legislation that established public bodies.

With the Charities team I assist with the drafting of a charity’s constitutional documentation, applications for their charitable status, assisting with donation agreements, or having a zoom call with clients to verify documentation.

A typical day for me rarely looks the same. I think that’s why I enjoy working in law so much. Sure, the processes are the same but the work varies on a day-to-day basis which is always refreshing.

First Impressions of MHC

The first thing I noticed right away was just how approachable everyone was. On all of the teams I’ve worked on, people came over to me on my first day and introduced themselves and made an effort to get to know me a little bit. Even with my most recent rotation during COVID-19, most of the team members called me and made that extra effort. I think this comes from having the open plan office. It blurs the lines of the hierarchy seen in other big law firms so it feels less daunting to talk people and you learn more. You don’t have the physical barrier of having to knock on an office door and risk interrupting somebody, so you feel much more comfortable asking questions.

My First Job

A friend of my parents’ owned a roofing company and needed a general labourer to help out. My parents volunteered me (I think it was a character building moment). It was by far the hardest job I’ve ever had to do. Lifting big bundles of shingles up a ladder for 8 hours a day might have been a reason I decided that an office job was for me moving forward.

What sports/hobbies/pastimes do you enjoy?

I grew up in Canada so I played ice hockey for most of my life. When I moved here to go to college it was the first time I didn’t have a rink easily accessible to me. When all my friends in college were deciding where to do their Erasmus I decided that I would broaden my horizons by moving to Toronto so I could play ice hockey again. In hindsight, that might not have been the best decision as I missed out on new cultural experiences. I got what I wanted though, I played on the law school’s team and we travelled all over Quebec and Ontario to play other law schools. They even had a nationwide tournament where we played some US colleges.

Now, I’ve had to accept that there’s no permanent ice rink in Dublin, and getting to Belfast to the only rink on the island proves to be a tad difficult. I’ve picked up golf to keep me preoccupied in the meantime!

Head over to our Summer Intern Programme page or the Graduate Hub for more information.