Winning fellowship was happiest day, says new barrister

Watching a US legal drama on television helped Jamie O’Gorman to develop an interest in the law. But it is the Bar itself, the 24-year-old says, that is responsible for him beginning work as a barrister on Monday.

O’Gorman was a beneficiary of the Denham Fellowship, a support system put in place by the Bar Council, the barristers’ regulatory and representative body, to help people who come from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds to pursue a career as a lawyer.

“I probably would have been able to come to it five or 10 years down the line, but because of the assistance [the fellowship] gave me, I was able to go directly from UCD to the King’s Inns to a career at the Bar. That would not have been possible without the fellowship,” he says.

The recipients of the fellowships, two of which are given out each year, do not have to pay the €12,500 fee for studying at King’s Inns, and also get paid an annual €6,000 stipend during their year of study and for the following four years as they try to establish a practice.

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As well as providing the financial support that meant O’Gorman could go straight to the King’s Inns from college, the fellowship also provided access to special mentoring support.

In his case, this came not just from senior counsel Michael Cush and barrister Aoife Carroll, but also from the Chief Justice, Frank Clarke, whom he met for dinner.

‘Nervous’

“I was obviously extremely nervous. I hadn’t even stepped inside a courtroom as an advocate, and here I was meeting the most senior judge in the land. I just couldn’t believe it,” he says.

As well as the other student in receipt of the fellowship, those at the dinner also included former chief justice Susan Denham, after whom the fellowship is named.

O’Gorman’s parents left school without sitting the Leaving Certificate. His mother works as a hairdresser and his father, who is now retired due to illness, worked as a sailor and a taxi driver.

O'Gorman first became interested in law, he says, while watching the TV law drama Perry Mason with his mother

From Sallynoggin in Dún Laoghaire, O’Gorman went to Coláiste Eoin before attending UCD with the help of the Higher Education Access Route (Hear), which seeks to help those from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds to go to third level. A person must have gone to third level with the help of the scheme if they are to qualify for a Denham Fellowship.

Selected

Senior Counsel Sara Moorehead came to UCD to tell law students who had made use of Hear about the fellowship. O’Connor says the day he learned he had been selected for it was “the happiest” of his life.

Apart from the fellowship, TV and film appears to have been the other major influence on his career choice. O’Gorman first became interested in law, he says, while watching the TV law drama Perry Mason with his mother.

His interest in company law, which he particularly enjoyed when a student in UCD, goes back to seeing Michael Douglas play corporate raider Gordon Gekko in the 1980s movie Wall Street.

As a graduate of King’s Inns, O’Gorman will now spend a year “devilling” under a master, after which he will be sent out to forge a career for himself. Personal injury, medical negligence and company law are the areas he would like to focus on.