For the next MHC Intern Life, we talked to Mark Coyle, a law student at Trinity College Dublin. Mark describes his final week as an intern here.
I had a truly excellent experience during my time at Mason Hayes & Curran. I really enjoyed the final week of the internship, as it was nice to be well settled in and to have a bit of a better understanding of the area I was working in and the work I was undertaking. A nice mix of work and social events took place throughout the week so there were great opportunities to get those last few pieces of insight into life at the firm, while also having time to wind down and get to know people who I hadn’t met already.
On Monday, we had some interesting talks with different people from throughout the firm. We had a really informative chat with the Managing Partner, Will Carmody and one of the partners in Financial Services. It was a really laid-back Q&A format, and it was nice to get the answers to some of the questions that we had all accumulated over the three weeks. They were very encouraging and offered some great advice on how to get the best out of our prospective careers. We also had an enlightening talk with some of the newly qualified associates from different practice areas and it was interesting to hear their experiences and the different kinds of work that go on in the different departments. This talk was followed by lunch with the newly qualified associates, and it was great to be able to have an informal chat about how they found the journey from being a college graduate and moving up towards being a qualified lawyer.
On Tuesday, we finished putting our project presentations together. Our project was on the current regulatory landscape of competition in digital markets. This has been a hot topic of discussion ever since the EU rolled out the Digital Markets Act in May 2023. It was really interesting and I quite enjoyed putting my piece together. Throughout the rest of the day, I worked closely with my mentor and got to carry out some typical trainee work. It was great to get this exposure to see what life is like as a trainee and to pick up some tips and tricks for when I get to that level.
We had a great opportunity on Wednesday to practice our presentations before we presented on Thursday. It was great to be able to get everything sorted ahead of time and get some useful tips from the great staff in human resources and marketing. A couple of the interns and myself then took advantage of the social initiatives that the firm offers and headed down to Irishtown Sports & Fitness after work to take part in the internal 5-a-side tournament. It was a lot of fun, and it was a great way to get to know some of the staff from different departments who I wouldn’t have met otherwise.
We started Thursday morning by giving our presentation to a number of partners. The presentation itself went really well and they gave us a lot of encouragement as they knew presenting to a group of experts is no easy feat! The partners only had good things to say and gave us all some really useful feedback on presenting and some advice on public speaking. Our group made sure to grab a (well deserved) celebratory coffee and pastry in the Bench Café after our presentation. Later in the day I had a meeting with one of the knowledge lawyers, and they gave me feedback on a case note I had done involving the obligations of receivers and exemplary damages. It was incredibly helpful to hear some advice from someone who has a lot of experience researching on how to best put together case notes and other pieces of legal writing. I finished off the day by sitting in on a client call regarding a really enticing matter and was a great piece of experience that I didn’t think I would get on an internship.
We rounded off the internship on Friday and I thoroughly enjoyed the day. We had a nice 2-hour lunch at Angelina’s with our mentors. It was really nice to relax and talk about the highs of the internship and to have a few laughs over some great food. To celebrate pride month, a special event took place on Friday evening where two teams went head-to-head in a family fortunes style quiz which was hosted by a drag queen. It was an absolute blast and went right to the wire. After a really enjoyable day, a last day drinks was organised by the firm for the interns and trainees which took place at Charlottes Quay. It was a fantastic way to end the internship and was a really great evening.
I will always have fond memories of my time taking part in the internship at Mason Hayes & Curran and would really recommend it to anyone thinking of applying.
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