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Mason Hayes and Curran Access Law Leadership Challenge

Lizett Polli image
Winning the summer placement spot has really launched my career. Thanks to the experience gained I aced an interview with MHC for a summer internship this year. It really was an incredible opportunity.
Lizett Polli, 2023 Summer Placement Prizewinner
White writing on a blue square reads

The Access Law Leadership Challenge is a collaboration between the UCD community (UCD Access and Lifelong Learning, UCD Sutherland School of Law, UCD Careers and UCD Alumni Relations) and Mason Hayes & Curran. The aim of the Challenge is to invite law students to demonstrate outstanding leadership by championing diversity solutions in the legal profession.

The winning submissions are awarded paid summer placement opportunities, mentoring, and bursaries for reading materials.

Congratulations to our 2025 Prizewinners who received their prizes at an event in March 2025 at Mason Hayes and Curran's offices.

Congratulations to our 2025 Access Law Leadership Challenge Prizewinners!

prizewinners with Gerry Kelly MHC and Gavin Barrett UCD
Left to right: Gerry Kelly, Partner Mason, Hayes & Curran; Prizewinners: Iman El Hennawi, Roisin Mc Donough, Melissa Lal, Hisham Mohamed, Caitlin Canavan O’Driscoll and Omayma Madani; Prof Gavin Barrett, UCD Sutherland School of Law. (Not pictured: Lavinia Hotca Florea and Lynn Kelly).
Challenge prizewinners arriving at event
Suleman Khan image
I have a better understanding of the legal profession. My mentor taught me several extremely beneficial job search strategies. It helped me because I don’t have any family members working in the legal profession who I can ask those sort of questions.
Suleman Khan, Mentorship Prizewinner

Prizewinner Testimonials

Simon Conran image
'Winning the Challenge gave me a first step which has translated into full time work and has opened a lot of doors for me. I cannot overstate how much it has done for me.
Simon Conran, 2024 Summer Placement Prizewinner

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