For the next MHC Intern Life, we talked to Louise Cullen, a law and policital student at Trinity College Dublin. Louise describes her final week as an intern here.
It’s hard to believe that we have finally reached the third and final week of the internship in Mason Hayes & Curran – the time has truly flown by! The week kicked off with a series of interesting talks from members of the firm. Firstly, we heard from the Managing Partner Will Carmody and Partner Sarah Cloonan about their professional journeys, their routes into corporate law, and the daily life of a corporate lawyer. This was followed by a chat with some newly qualified lawyers on their roles in different departments.
After this we had lunch with the associates, giving us a chance to ask our questions and interact in a more informal environment. The lunch menu deserves a report of its own, with the mini strawberry cheesecake being a particularly notable component. If this wasn’t exciting enough, the ice cream fridge had been restocked! So we treated ourselves to Icebergers, Soleros, and a few rogue Brunches, before going on our daily lunchtime walk around the Docklands.
Following lunch, we were allocated time to work on our group presentations. My group was carrying out the finishing touches on the executive summary for our project, which related to the Construction Contracts Act 2013. The main challenge was distilling the executive summary of our project into only two pages – we were forced to be brutal in terms of the content we cut from the summary, but ultimately, we succeeded. Then we were left to polish up our slides, giving those with an artistic flair a chance to shine.
The next day was taken up with submitting our various pieces of work, the executive summaries and our marketing assignments. I also carried out some departmental research on behalf of the Employment Law and Benefits team. While it can be challenging and busy to get everything submitted on time, it is a great experience to learn how to balance competing demands, and to achieve a task in a timely manner.
Wednesday saw us squeezing in our last pieces of preparation before our presentations in front of the partners on Thursday. We had the opportunity to practice delivering the group projects in front of the other interns. Presenting on any area can be quite nerve-wracking, but it helps when there’s a great team around you, helping you to improve and encouraging you to do your best.
Finally, on Thursday, we delivered our presentation. While tensions were high in the moments preceding, it couldn’t have gone more smoothly. The slide transitions were flawless, and we survived the subsequent grilling on the Construction Contracts Act 2013. Nothing is ever as scary as it seems!
Looking back on my time over the three weeks, it is hard to believe that we did so much. I have been given the opportunity to partake in a wide variety of work, from client calls and drafting memos to legal researching and giving presentations. There has also been an excellent social side, between Go Quest, Paulie’s Pizza, and the Summer Barbecue.
Overall, interning in Mason Hayes & Curran has been a fantastic experience, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have done so.
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