Mr Justice Kearns addresses Blackhall Place launch of literary-legal charity book

Danielle McLaughlin

Counterparts: A Synergy of Law and Literature contains 22 contributions from lawyer-writers, each paired with a law report on a similar theme.

The collection, edited by former solicitor Danielle McLaughlin, is aiming to raise cash for the Peter McVerry Trust.

Introducing Mr Justice Kearns at last night’s launch event, hosted by the Law Society of Ireland, Ms McLaughlin pointed out that the retired Supreme Court judge “is himself a writer as well as a lawyer”.

She added: “He is a writer of very fine fiction - I have had the pleasure of reading some of it and I’m going to be nagging him now to get his work out into the world, as I want to see it on bookshelves!”

Mr Justice Kearns, who in recent years completed an MPhil in creative writing at Trinity College Dublin, entertained guests with a series of choice quotes on short story-writing.

He said Counterparts was a “fantastic idea” and was “absolutely delighted to have been asked to play this function today”.

Afterwards, Ms McLaughlin presented the retired judge with a clothbound special limited edition of Counterparts, which is on sale for €195.

Immigration lawyer Stephen Collins, barrister Yvonne Cullen and solicitor Catherine Conroy read from their contributions to the book.

Patrick Dorgan, president of the Law Society, who also addressed the event, told Irish Legal News that he was “delighted to host the launch of Counterparts in aid of a great charity, the Peter McVerry Trust”.

He added: “The Law Society is a great supporter of the Peter McVerry Trust and we’re very pleased to be able to assist with this great project. It’s a wonderful compendium of short stories and we commend it to all lawyers and non-lawyers - an ideal Christmas present.”

The launch of the book has been supported by Arthur Cox, Gartlan Furey, Lavelle Solicitors, Maples & Calder, Mason Hayes & Curran, Matheson, McCann FitzGerald, Philip Lee Solicitors, Ronan Daly Jermyn and William Fry.