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Levelling the land

Personal-injury specialist and partner at Tracey Solicitors, Maria Lakes has always had a strong sense of justice and a drive to right wrongs, she tells Mary Hallissey

For Maria Lakes, it was a mock trial in transition year at secondary school that sparked her interest in law and justice. However, no one she knew had ever studied law – and becoming a solicitor seemed like a goal that was out of reach.

While she was considering instead a career as a mechanic or an accountant, she found out that the Trinity Access Programmes (TAP) offered an alternative route to law.

“While I worked very hard academically at Mercy Secondary School, Goldenbridge,” says Maria, "I didn’t think I would be able to get the CAO points required for law, and I couldn’t imagine a pathway that led to Trinity College.

"I didn’t have access to the type of educational support needed for that level of points. But TAP, in their goal of widening access and participation at third-level for underrepresented groups, gave me that pathway.”

TAP offers alternative avenues into third-level education for those in low-progression areas, and also provides support and financial assistance to students.

One way

Maria realised that getting accepted to a Trinity College law degree was an enormous opportunity, which had to be seized: “This was perhaps the greatest opportunity ever bestowed on me,” she reflects.

“But not taking the standard route also gave me the greatest chip on my shoulder.

“In my early years at Trinity, I felt like I didn’t belong there. But, looking back, this also gave me a relentless ambition to prove myself among my peers and succeed,” she adds.

Maria worked extremely hard at Trinity and was very driven to prove herself. She says she enjoyed her studies and started working in a solicitors’ firm in her second year of college to get some practical experience.

“Throughout my law degree, and subsequently at Blackhall, I worked diligently and, year after year, received higher marks,” she recalled. “I was also fortunate enough to enter the Law Society via their Access Programme, which meant my training solicitor’s firm did not have to cover any costs for my professional practice course.”

The road

By the time Maria went to the Law Society, she felt she deserved her place. “I continued to work hard and was delighted when I got an award for highest marks in PPC1; that helped to put my imposter syndrome feelings to bed!” she laughs.

For a long time, Maria didn’t share the story of her journey into law because of this imposter syndrome. “It wasn’t until I read the story of another TAP law student in the newspaper that I realised: we should be shouting these stories from the rooftops!”

Maria feels that both Trinity and the Law Society’s access programmes are vital tools in fostering diversity in the legal profession.

“Society still isn’t always fair, and there’s a long way to go,” she says. “But the profession needs more diversity, and these pathways via access programmes are key to this. They are a way of widening access to law, and they foster diversity in the profession. This in turn has a positive impact on clients, who naturally are from a diverse range of backgrounds themselves.”

Giving her clients access to the law and justice has now become her day-to-day job, and it’s what keeps Maria so passionate about the law after 20 years.

“I’m really driven to help victims of accidents, particularly people who otherwise couldn’t avail of legal services because of financial reasons,” she explains.

Tracey Solicitors LLP, the long-established personal-injury law firm that Maria is a partner in, has a motto of ‘making law accessible’ for all, regardless of clients’ background.

Liberty song

Maria believes that a large portion of society could be locked out of the justice system if they don’t have the means or ability to access legal services.

“The reality is that our civil legal aid system does not provide services in our arena. Further to this, taxpayers should not be funding the legal costs of victims who suffer at the hands of defendants. We must ensure people are able to obtain a legal remedy.

“What we do every day is, we level the playing field to help get justice for our clients. If there is no access to legal services, there is no access to justice. Just in the same way that I wouldn’t have been able to become a solicitor without the programmes that gave me a foot in the door,” she says.

“I got into law because the access programmes levelled that playing field for me and made my career in law possible. Now I feel privileged to use my legal skills to make the law accessible to people who have suffered a personal injury that has impacted their life,” she adds.

“And it gives me huge satisfaction to see my clients come out the other side of their own legal journey, to weather the storm and be able to reclaim their life.”

Mary Hallissey is a journalist at the Law Society Gazette.