Business News

UCD officially opens €25mn law school

By Business & Finance
29 November 2013

UCD officially opens the first purpose-built university Law School in Ireland. Named after Peter Sutherland SC, the UCD Sutherland School of Law honours his achievements both as a UCD law graduate and on the world stage.

The iconic facility, which measures over 5,100 square metres, is located on the edge of a newly designed and landscaped lakeside setting on the 133 hectare Belfield campus. It brings together all the teaching, research and professional development activity of the Law School into a single building.

The €25mn project was financed from a major leadership gift from Peter Sutherland SC, significant government investment under the National Development Plan 2007 – 2013, and gifts from other leading benefactors, major law firms and private donors.

Teaching spaces in UCD Sutherland School of Law are designed to promote the active engagement of students with the law. These include a clinical legal education centre where students can develop their advocacy, dispute resolution, client counselling and negotiation skills in simulated courtroom and office settings. The largest theatre in the facility also serves as a ceremonial moot court.

Opportunities to incorporate a range of aspects of legal practice into their learning will enhance students’ understanding of how the legal system works through their experiences.

“UCD Sutherland School of Law will propel Ireland’s growing international reputation as a location for the study and research of law to the next level,” said UCD President, Dr Hugh Brady.

“This outstanding new facility brings all of our research and teaching activities in the law into one single location to create a vibrant atmosphere where our scholars can share their knowledge and ideas and lead Ireland to the forefront of legal education and research.

“It is through the singular vision and generosity of one of our most distinguished alumni, Peter Sutherland, that this development was made possible, and from which generations of students and scholars will enormously benefit,” he added.

Speaking at the opening, Peter Sutherland SC said: “I am very proud, as an alumnus of UCD School of Law, to be associated with this magnificent new building and to have been able to play a part in making it happen. Education is one of the most important benefits we can pass on to future generations. The rule of law underpins the cohesiveness and prosperity of society, making a sound legal education one of the most important we can deliver.”

Prof. Colin Scott, Dean of Law at UCD added:“The new School has been designed to further deepen a strong sense of community within a transformative educational environment where staff and students work together and flourish.

“The new building offers the School, for the first time, state-of-the-art facilities for research to engage with those who both use and inform its research, in meetings and seminars, but also through professional development conferences and courses at graduate diploma and masters level.”

Designed by Molony O’Beirne architects, the new School offers a national resource, of the highest international standards, to underpin innovation in legal education, research and practice.