Omagh woman proves her legal ability beyond a reasonable doubt

To the average person, the law is an obscure, abstruse and mysterious thing. A complicated, dense and almost opaque system of legislation, custom and convention.

Sure, when somebody mentions ‘the legal system’, we all nod soberly as though we understand exactly what they are referring to.

However, truth be told, few us have even a half-grasp of what the law really is – never mind how it works.

But there are some people who really do understand what is going on within the labyrinth of the legal system.

These people, through a combination of sustained study and mental acuity, are able to navigate the twists and turns within its maze, and have come to understand the beasts of protocol, statute, stipulation and qualification that guard its every corner.

They are the specialists, and to their expertise and authority we defer absolutely.

One local lady who has earned our utmost deference is Roisin McCaughey.

Never allowing humble beginnings to temper her ambition, the former Loreto Grammar School pupil has recently risen to the top rungs of the legal ladder in America. Having passed the bar in the state of New York, Roisin now works for one of the biggest law firms in the world.

From her 25th floor office, one which rises high into New York’s never-darkening sky, the Omagh woman told us how she turned her pipedream of becoming a top attorney into a reality.

“If I was still on your side of the Atlantic, I never would have agreed to do this,” laughed Roisin, by way of introduction.

“It was only because of my mum’s insistence that I acquiesced to being interviewed at all!”

Without a whiff of airs, graces or pretension, at my request, Roisin kindly took us along the road, across the sidewalk, and up the elevator that has led her to the plush office she now calls work.

“So, in terms of my education, I started out in the Loreto Covent Primary and then went onto the Grammar School,” said Roisin.

“In secondary school, I did very lawyerly subjects; politics, history, Irish.”

After attaining strong A-Level results, Roisin boarded the 273 bus to Belfast and began life as a student in Queen’s University Belfast (QUB).

“I got up to Belfast and applied myself to my studies. As time went on, I began to develop a vision of my future,” said Roisin.

As the dream became more vivid, growing in detail and specificity, the emerging picture was one built against an American backdrop.

“I visited America with the Ulster Project in school and loved it.

“I was first in Louisana, then through a university project I went South Carolina, then Chicago.”

The time Roisin spent in the States, mixed with the glossy scenes she had absorbed from American legal shows, formed an irresistible alchemy in her mind.

“I decided I would do whatever it took to get the qualifications I needed to practice law in America, and that is what I set about doing,” she stated.

A plan was set in motion.

“After I graduated from QUB, I passed my exams with NI’s Institute for Professional Legal Studies,” said Roisin.

Because the law in the North is so similar to the law in England and Wales, Roisin explained, she was able get work across the water quite easily.

“The same went in the South,” said Roisin. “I ended up getting a job with a firm in Dublin called William Fry.”

At the time, Dublin was exploding as a hub for multi-nationals, who were all racing to establish European headquarters in Ireland’s capital.

“Intel, Facebook and Google were all setting up in Dublin, and we were handling the Irish side of the legalities involved in some of these big deals,” said Roisin.

However, if the deals were icebergs, Roisin was only getting to drive her pick into the smaller, topmost part of them.

“The American side of the deals is where the lion’s share of the legal work was,” said Roisin. “I wanted to be involved with that.”

This only served to further sharpen Roisin’s vision of an American future, and galvanised her will to bring it about.

“I arranged to sit the New York bar exam, and set about doing the work necessary to get the results I needed,” she said.

Rising at 5am every morning, Roisin would surround herself with a fortress of books and bury her head in their pages.

“I would study until I had to go into work, then, when I left the office around 8 or 9pm, I would get home and do a bit more,” said Roisin.

The New York State bar exam is considered more difficult than its UK and Irish equivalents. On average, only 30 per-cent of non-US students pass.

“People kept telling me it was too much work, that I would be as well settling for London, and generally bombarding me with their pet pieces of ambition-curbing advice.

“But my thinking was, ‘somebody has to do it, why not me?’

Roisin took the gruelling exam remotely, which involved a 12-hour test, split up over two days.

“They do not tell you when exactly the results will be released, so when I got mine I was sitting in work… I took one look at them and burst into tears,” said Roisin, the sense of relief still lingering in her laugh.

Then it was time to secure a Visa.

“It was letters of recommendation, proof of this, that and the other, but, finally, after a lot of toiling and torturing, I ended up getting something called an ‘Extraordinary Ability Visa’,” said Roisin, half-embarrassed by the lofty title of the endorsement she had been granted.

“So now I am here, in New York City, the Statue of Liberty within view of my office window, employed by the 13th biggest law firm in the world, Jones Day.

“It is fair to say that there are the hours of the day in which I do not pinch myself are few and far between,” beamed Roisin.

If the name Jones Day rang a bell, it is probably because they are the guys who handled the legalities when multi-billionaire tech demigod, Elon Musk bought Twitter.

“It is all finance law, so, as part of a team of attorneys, I help negotiate and thrash out the terms of big money deals. The biggest I have worked on so far was worth £2.8 billion,” said Roisin, the absurdity of the figure at stake not lost on her.

“I love New York, and the city remains as magic to me today as when I first arrived,” she continued.

“You are surrounded by a city that once only seemed to exist on a screen. You are part of something that seemed so foreign – barely real.

“As I walk beneath the shadow of the Empire State Building or experience the impossible quiet of Central Park, it still feels surreal.”

Encouraging other local people of high aspirations to chase, grab and actualise their dreams, Roisin had the following bit of advice.

“Whatever it is you dream of doing, understand that somebody has to do it, and why not make it you?

“The Irish community out here have been so supportive of me and it really is like a family away from home.

“I could go on and on,” said Roisin, “but I won’t.

“If you want to get somewhere, go for it with everything you have, pour all your energy into it, and you might just make it happen!”