Cork students get a taste for the law in London

CORK secondary school and third-level students have taken part in a social mobility pilot project with London Irish Lawyers Association (LILA).

Access UCC’s Maeve Minihane and Jennifer Walsh worked collaboratively with a LILA team, including Sean Corcoran, a former Access UCC student, and Michael Walker from Kingsley Napley LLP. 

A programme was developed which offered UCC and second-level students an insight into a career in law, comprising numerous talks, workshops, a Moot Court and Solicitors Competition.

The pilot involved three Access UCC Law students and eight TY students from Gaelcholáiste Mhuire AG, Cork, where the TY students were introduced to the concept of ‘bail’ and afterwards participated in mock trials in the UCC Moot Court Trial Room in Áras na Laoi. 

The winners then went on to a national competition, with UCC making the final in London, which saw the final teams (consisting of one university student and one secondary school pupil) fly in from Cork and Belfast.

They were treated to a whirlwind tour of legal London, as well as a private tour of the Embassy of Ireland, before donning wigs and gowns to appear before HHJ Rafferty KC and her usher for the evening, the Hon Mrs Justice McGowan, in a contested bail application at the Royal Courts of Justice.

Ultimately, bail was denied and the Cork team of Alyson O’Kelly-Lynch from UCC and Chinedu Okonkwo from Gaelcholáiste Mhuire AG emerged as the winners.

Maeve Minihane, Schools Outreach Coordinator at Access UCC PLUS Programme, said: “This amazing experience will be something that our students will remember all their lives. The LILA team collectively were amazingly generous with their time, advice, encouragement and generosity of spirit.”