With the first week already flown by, I have had a great time meeting new people and exploring the country of Ireland. Already, I have made many new friends and made countless memories with them at Irish pubs, sightseeing in the city center, and playing Irish games like hurling and Gaelic football. It has been a blast, but with the week now winding down, tomorrow starts the next phase of my Ireland experience, beginning my first-ever professional internship.
This summer, I will work in the legal industry as an intern at Gary Daly and Company Solicitors. This is an Irish Law Firm that offers a variety of legal assistance in areas such as insolvency, estate planning, and immigration to name a few of their many services. As a prospective Law School Student unsure about what area of law I want to practice, I think this firm gives me a great chance to expose myself to many different law practices that will help me narrow down my specialty in law school after graduation. I have no legal experience coming into this position, and I am excited to meet people immersed in the field and learn as much as I can from those experienced in the career field I aspire to succeed in.
There are many different skills and competencies essential to finding success as a lawyer or in the legal field in general. Strong communication skills are extremely important and perhaps the most fundamental skill common in any successful lawyer. Communication skills are vital in creating rapport between your clients and communicating your arguments effectively in a court setting to judges and jurors. Communicating clearly through writing is just as important to ensure understanding and simplify complex legal jargon and dense legal language that is difficult for the average person to understand. Complementing and augmenting this communication skill is active listening. To communicate well, it is just as important to have the ability to listen attentively to ascertain all the details of a case and understand your client’s position fully. An empathetic understanding of where a client is coming from will bolster one’s ability to speak convincingly on their behalf.
Alongside these skills, there are many competencies unique to Irish Law that are important to have and cultivate for success in my host country. Ireland has barristers and solicitors in contrast with the lawyers we have in the States, a subtle distinction that has implications in the range of their responsibilities and actions in their day-to-day working lives. According to Citizens Information, a website that offers information about careers and services in Ireland, “a solicitor is a type of lawyer who is qualified to offer legal advice and services.” A barrister, on the other hand, again from Citizens Information- “is a type of lawyer who specializes in court advocacy and giving legal opinions. There are two levels of barrister – junior and senior counsel.” An American lawyer, to differentiate yet again, practices a different type of law that requires unique certifications and qualifications that separate them into a different class apart from the Irish solicitors and barristers.
As an intern under Gary Daly and Company Solicitors, a prominent solicitor and firm in Ireland, I will be under the guidance of those giving legal advice and services to clients on a case-by-case basis. Since they cater to the individual client in whatever legal service they require, it is important to be flexible and understanding to best accommodate everyone’s unique situations. Since Ireland has its very own legal system, I will be dealing with an entirely different context of law than I am accustomed to in the United States of America. This is the most obvious and noteworthy difference from American Law that will require flexibility and a willingness to learn new things when on the clock at my internship.
Luckily, my prior work experience has prepared me well by training me in the skills and competencies necessary to succeed in an Irish law office. As a camp counselor, I honed my communication abilities by dictating instructions to my campers and communicating with their parents and my supervisor to address any behavioral or emotional issues that arose. As a server at the country club, I was thrown into many hectic situations that required flexibility and quick problem-solving to navigate my way out.
To conclude, there are many different character traits that enable success in the legal industry generally and in Ireland particularly. Tomorrow marks my first foray into the legal world and the beginning of my international internship, and I am very excited to learn all about Irish Law while growing personally and professionally along the way!!
