31 January 2012
Solicitors’ Apprentices Set for International Competition’
Apprentices from the Institute of Professional Legal Studies were celebrating in January after winning the regional heat of the Law Society of Northern Ireland’s Client Consultation Competition.
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT
Niall Hargan (Judge), Julie Ann McCaffrey, Apprentice, Kevin Gallagher Apprentice, Mary Trainor from IPLS and David Gaston (Judge)
The competition, which is held annually, provides an opportunity for law students to participate in mock client solicitor interviews.
Those participating are then judged on how they conduct the interview, how they establish a professional relationship, how they analyse the scenario, how they extract the relevant information, how they assess the needs of their clients taking into account all available options including non-litigious solutions.
Participating in this year’s competition were students from the undergraduate Schools of Law at the University of Ulster at Jordanstown and Queen’s University Belfast and teams from the Graduate School of Professional Legal Education and the Institute of Professional Legal Studies.
This year’s winning team were Julie Ann McCaffrey and Kevin Gallagher from the IPLS and they will represent Northern Ireland at the international “The Louis M. Brown and Forrest S. Mosten International Client Consultation Competition” in Dublin, in April 2012.
Julie Ann is an apprentice with Cleaver, Fulton, Rankin solicitors. Kevin is an apprentice with Worthingtons solicitors.
Speaking after the competition, the President of the Law Society, Mrs Imelda McMillan said:
I am delighted that so many students participated in this year’s Client Consultation Competition and I wish to congratulate the winning team from the IPLS and wish them the best of luck in the international competition in Dublin.