24 January 2018
New NIYSA Committee elected for 2018
The Northern Ireland Young Solicitors Association (NIYSA) held its Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 10th January 2018.
At the AGM a new NIYSA Committee for 2018 was elected.
The new members are:
Rachael Gamble (Cleaver Fulton Rankin) – Chair
Chris Kinney (McCallion Keown) – Vice Chair
Stephanie Johnston (Carson McDowell) – Treasurer
Lauren Jones (HHD Solicitors) – Secretary
Owen Williamson (Shean Dickson Merrick) – Membership Secretary
William Nugent (Thompson Crooks) – CPD Co-ordinator
Emma O’Donnell (Carson McDowell) – Committee Member
Ruaidhrí Austin (Lacey Solicitors) – Committee Member
John O’Kelly (HHD Solicitors) – Committee Member
David Cairns (Eamonn McEvoy & Co) – Immediate Past Chair
TBC – IPLS representative
Commenting after the AGM, the new Chair of the NIYSA, Rachel Gamble said:
“I am delighted first and foremost to be elected onto the committee and furthermore extremely humbled to be nominated as Chair this year.
I would like to express my thanks to outgoing committee members, Julie-Ann McCaffrey-Flynn (Cleaver Fulton Rankin), Ciara Ferguson (JMK), Francesca Glynn (Edwards and Co) and Emma McCaul (Simmons Meglaughlin & Orr) for all their help and assistance throughout the past number of years.
I would also like to thank our immediate Past Chair, David Cairns, and all the past committee members for all their tireless efforts throughout the year to promote the members of the association.
Finally, I would like to sincerely thank the Law Society of Northern Ireland for their longstanding and extremely helpful support of the NIYSA.
I hope to further develop our relationship with the Law Society for the benefit of our members by working with the new committee members to engage and represent our members throughout the entire jurisdiction of Northern Ireland.
I also look forward to enhancing existing networks and developing new networks with our counterparts across the four jurisdictions of the UK and Ireland and also our colleagues across Europe and further afield.”
The Northern Ireland Young Solicitors' Association was set up in 1984 by Harry Coll, the then President of the Law Society of Northern Ireland.
The NIYSA aims to
* represent the views of young solicitors;
* organise activities of an educational and social nature;
* encourage contact with the other young solicitors’ Associations and with other professions; and
* promote and advance the interests of young solicitors generally and those of the legal profession.
Every solicitor who has not reached ten years’ post qualification experience (PQE) automatically becomes a member of the NIYSA.