High Impact Professional Series #5: Trauma informed Lawyering and Working with Complex and Vulnerable Clients

 

Aim and objectives
This fifth webinar of the High Impact Professional Series is delivered by Law Society Psychological Services in partnership with Law Society Professional Training. In this engaging webinar, our speakers will discuss trauma informed lawyering and working with complex and vulnerable clients. 

Key conversation areas include:
1. Managing the emotional demands of complex legal cases
2. Balancing client expectations 
3. Addressing vicarious trauma 

Chairperson 

Fiona McNulty
Fiona is a Partner on the Mason Hayes & Curran Health & Prosecutions team. She advises across a broad range of healthcare law matters, including childcare law, vulnerable adults and High Court inherent jurisdiction applications. She also advises corporate clients in the context of criminal and regulatory investigations. With extensive advocacy skills and experience, Fiona appears regularly before the courts to present her own cases. 
Fiona is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin. She is a Member of the Council of the Law Society of Ireland and sits on a number of Law Society Committees including the Professional Wellbeing Steering Group, the Litigation Committee, the Education Committee and the Younger Members Committee, of which she is an immediate past Chair. She sits on the board of the Irish Family Planning Association and is a long-standing committee member of the Irish Women Lawyer’s Association.

Speakers

Denise Kirwan 
Denise is a partner in childcare department at Comyn Kelleher Tobin solicitors Cork office. She is a specialist in childcare law with a special interest/experience in training for social work practitioners. Denise is an experienced provider of court skills training to HSE community care teams, TUSLA child protection/ community care services and University College Cork masters in social work. Denise is a member of the Child and Family Law Committee at the Law Society of Ireland.

Melissa Rutherford
Melissa is a solicitor and director at Rutherford Sheridan Solicitors. She is a specialist in criminal defence and immigration law. Melissa has experience of family law and child law along with representing clients, at children's referral proceedings. Melissa is a trustee with Indigo Childcare Charity and previously a trustee of Join the Dots, an organisation assisting those involved into the criminal justice system. She was appointed to the board of directors as honorary legal member for Children 1st Charity and was appointed by the Scottish Government as a Children Interviewing Rights Practitioner for children aged 12 and under. Melissa cofounded Trauma Aware Lawyers in Scotland where she has developed a certification course for lawyers in Scotland (and beyond) on Trama informed legal practice. Melissa is also a mentor at iWiL, a mentorship programme for young women.

Paul Hughes
Paul is an accredited psychotherapist in private practice, working with individuals and groups in Dublin City centre and also a member of a team of psychotherapists working with trainee solicitors at the Law Society of Ireland. He holds a diploma in Group Work Practice from the School of Psychotherapy at St. Vincent’s University Hospital and is a trainee Group Analyst in his fifth year of training at the School of Medicine, UCD. Paul has facilitated reflective practice and support groups in a variety of settings including for the Law Society Psychological Services and its stakeholders and has been a panellist and interviewer for the Law Society Skillnet Business of Wellbeing Summit over the past three years. He is also an avid film and literature fan, having previously hosted film screenings for the Law School during its Mental Health Awareness Weeks.  

• Unless otherwise indicated, our Zoom webinars and meetings are held live and access to a recording is not provided afterwards to those who have registered. If you miss the live webinar/meeting, you cannot play back the event. You also may not avail of your CPD hours for that event
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• For full programme details download the Brochure
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