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Law Society trainees mentor task-oriented pupils

The Law Society has played host to the School Tasking Taskmaster regional final, sending the winning participants to the final this week at the University of Warwick.

The outreach project enables young people to learn about aspects of the law through fun, interactive tasks.

Pilot

Law Society PPC course managers Ruth Tracey and John Lunney led the pilot of the public legal education initiative in this country.

The regional final saw teams from five local schools compete at Blackhall Place (21 March) with Saint Gabriel's emerging victorious.

Participants were:

• Saint Mary’s Primary School, Saint Mary’s Place, Upper Dorset Steet, Dublin 1,
• Saint Gabriel’s, Cowper Street, Arbour Hill, Dublin 7,
• Saint Paul’s Primary School, North Brunswick, Dublin 7,
• Stanhope Street Primary School, Manor Street, Dublin 7, and
• Loreto Senior Primary School, Crumlin Road, Crumlin Dublin 12.

Enthusiastic students from fourth class took part in a series of engaging challenges, all designed with a basis of learning the law.

Facilitating the day were ten PPC trainees, whose dedication and expertise played a pivotal role in guiding the students.

For four weeks, the Law Society trainees worked in the schools, building rapport with the pupils and igniting their passion for the law.

For the regional final, teams embarked on the task of creating a movie based on the case of Dudley v Stephens, delved into the intriguing debate of whether chocolate bar shapes should be trademarked, and tackled a law-based number puzzle involving a snail in a bottle and freeing Little Alex Horne.

Regional winners St Gabriel’s arrived at Warwick University this week, together with PPC trainees Alison Fahey (A&L Goodbody) and Loughlin Russell (Matheson).

Third place

The Irish took on 32 other schools and did exceptionally well in placing third.

Participating trainees were:

• Alison Fahey (A&L Goodbody), 
• Loughlin Russell (Matheson), 
• Elizaveta Dundon (William Fry), 
• Emma McGuire (Byrne Wallace), 
• Jordan Egan (Matheson), 
• Maeve Claffey (Arthur Cox),
• Grace O'Mahoney (Hayes Solicitors), 
• Aoife O'Donnell (DLA Piper), 
• Hazel McAuliffe (McCann FitzGerald), and
• Susan Sarah Satheesh (Matheson).