Lawyers from Walkers have been speaking with secondary school students in Dublin about careers in law as part of a national outreach programme aimed at supporting access to the profession for young people from all backgrounds.
HR Director at Walkers, Frank McCracken, participated in Trinity College Dublin's Access Day in November, along with intern Katia Brantuk, who spoke about her journey from Ukraine and her experience at Walkers.
The session was a follow-up to a talk in October 2022, in which mentors from Walkers attended at Mount Carmel Secondary School in Dublin 1 to give the students an insight into the life of a lawyer through a Q&A session.
As part of its key priority of promoting equal access to legal opportunities, Walkers has been a sponsor of Trinity College Dublin Law Society's Outreach Programme since February 2022, and some of the team will be acting as judges for the mock trials planned for the Outreach Day in February.
Trinity runs the programme with secondary school students across Ireland with the goal of breaking down the barriers to careers in law for young people from all backgrounds.
Commenting on his experience talking to students at Mount Carmel, Asset Management and Investment Funds partner Aongus McCarthy said: "The students showed strong interest and raised great questions about working as a lawyer and how to qualify – Trinity Outreach run an excellent programme to open up the profession to young people and we are very glad to have taken part."
Associate, David Braithwaite added: "I am very pleased to have been able to take part in the programme – it is only by talking about what we do and working to include young people in conversations around legal careers that we will make the industry more inclusive and more attractive to people from a wide range of backgrounds."
Other team members including partners, Niall Esler, Susan Battye and Rachel Rodgers, and associate, Aylin Barry also participated in sessions at neighbouring schools in the last academic year, giving short presentations and answering questions from the students about their work and about the route to qualification.
