Tomás Heneghan

If you do the placement and it turns out to not be a career you want to pursue, fine, you’ve learned something important there. Try not to have a pre-conceived idea of what your placement will be like and what you’ll get from it, because you could be very surprised at the end.

Tomás made history last year when he won a Supreme Court appeal for his claim that UL graduates should be entitled to vote in the Seanad Éireann elections. He got his first experience of working in a legal environment during his co-op and gives future students advice on how to make the most of their experience. 

Tell us a bit about yourself, what course did you study in UL, what has your career looked like to date?   

I started with the BA Joint Honours in 2010 and went on then in 2014 to the Graduate Diploma MA in Journalism, which I graduated from a little behind schedule in January 2018. My career since finishing at UL has been quite mixed. Initially, I tried to keep up journalism, first as Editor of An Focal in UL for about a year, then a short internship at Independent.ie. After that, I found myself in Revenue for a few months, at a medical devices factory, Ireland’s data regulator just after the GDPR came in, and now I’m in financial services doing data protection. 

Tell us a bit about your co-op placement, what organisation did you work with and what year it took place?   

I knew from the beginning of my undergrad that I’d try to get a placement in a solicitors’ office, so naturally when the time came to find somewhere, I turned to a small firm in Galway I was familiar with – McInerney Solicitors – after doing a work experience with them for a few days in Transition Year and Fifth Year of secondary school. They agreed to take me on for three months – January to March 2012. Then through engagements with other solicitors around Galway City during that period, I found another solicitor who had just set up her firm – Kathy M. O’Connor & Co. Solicitors – and needed a secretary/assistant. We worked together from April to June 2012, and it was a brilliant experience. I was thrown in at the deep end early on and it tested my capabilities, but more importantly, it helped me develop my interpersonal skills and changed some of my outlook on life. 

What impact did your co-op placement have on your future career?   

Co-op was a real learning experience, both from the legal perspective – how Irish law and the Irish legal system work on the ground, the workings of the District and Circuit Courts, the preparation of legal files, and course the importance of filing – and helping me develop many personal skills. While strictly speaking I ultimately didn’t continue with a career in law, my co-op experience created a strong foundation for the development of my future career and personal life. When it came to initiating a legal challenge, as a lay litigant, to the rules on who gets to vote in elections for Seanad Éireann, I turned to my former co-op boss to ask her to witness the swearing of my legal documents and she was happy to oblige – the next week I lodged the papers in the High Court and now we’re at a place at last where UL graduates will soon enjoy the right to vote in Seanad elections that has been the strict preserve of NUI and Trinity graduates up to now. 

What piece of advice would you give to students going on co-op now?   

I would tell anyone going on co-op to think about what they want to do or experience. Don’t wait until the last minute to find a placement and don’t just do something for the sake of plugging the 6-8 months as a check-box exercise. Try to find something you’re interested in, something you think you’ll be passionate about. If you do the placement and it turns out to not be a career you want to pursue, fine, you’ve learned something important there. Try not to have a preconceived idea of what your placement will be like and what you’ll get from it because you could be very surprised at the end. Most importantly, try to find something you think you might enjoy, at least a small bit, but also something that will challenge you to climb outside your comfort zone. If you get the right fit, your co-op will be an experience you’ll always remember.