Mullingar woman appointed to senior legal role in Vienna

But for five points in the Leaving Cert, Mullingar-born lawyer Niamh Leinwather (née Scally), who lives 45 minutes outside the Austrian capital, Vienna, would probably now be a doctor.

Instead, she has just taken the helm at one of Europe’s key centres of arbitration, the Vienna International Arbitration Centre (VIAC) – an achievement all the more remarkable in that Niamh’s work requires fluency in German at native level.

At this stage, for the Beechlawns native, her fluency has long been attained and indeed certified, for while in her early 20s, she became the only Irish woman ever to qualify for the Austrian bar.

It was just last week that Niamh started her new role as secretary-general of VIAC, a role that marks her as one of Europe’s leading legal professionals.

But while her life now is in Austria, with environmental chemist husband Roman and their three young (and bilingual) children, Niamh remains very much in touch with Mullingar as it is where her parents Peter (originally from Killare) and Carmel (a Dysart native) still live, and of course she is close also to her younger sister Edel, who lives in Howth and who is chief medical scientist with the Irish Blood Transfusion Service.

Notions of moving abroad were not on Niamh’s mind when she decided not to repeat in a bid to study medicine but instead to accept her second choice offer, and study law – but as fate would have it, the opportunity to spend some time abroad arose through the Erasmus programme:

“I did a Bachelor of Civil Law with European Studies at UCD, and I did my Erasmus year here, in Vienna,” she recalled this week in an interview from Austria with the Westmeath Examiner.

After her Erasmus year, Niamh returned to UCD to complete her degree, afterwards moving back to Austria, and working at the Irish embassy for six months before enrolling at the University of Vienna to undertake a master’s in European studies.

There followed an internship with the UN, after which Niamh opted to return to the legal world in Austria. Because the two countries’ legal systems are different, this involved firstly sitting exams in Austrian law that would facilitate recognition of Niamh’s Irish degree; then undertaking the court internship candidates for the Austrian bar are required to complete.

Niamh then spent two years with the global law firm DLA Piper doing real estate, moving from there to the elite Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which is considered the oldest international law firm in the world, and a member of the so-called ‘Magic Circle’ of law firms that have their headquarters in London: “I applied to Freshfields for a position in arbitration and their international arbitration group is quite competitive. So it’s the kind of thing where you wouldn’t be sure if you’re going to get in, but I got a spot and then basically, I stayed there for 11 years and after two years, I did the Austrian bar exam – you have to do two years of practice before you can qualify to sit that.”

Getting through the bar exam was a tough journey, Niamh admits: “Because it is in German, it is this big, long, pretty horrific process – and to be honest, if I had known in advance what it entailed, in detail, I probably wouldn’t have done it,” she laughs.

Understandably it opened a lot of doors for her: “It’s nice, I think, when you’re in another jurisdiction to have the qualification in that jurisdiction because then you are not considered a foreign lawyer.”

VIAC

Niamh was on maternity leave last year and due to return to Freshfields this month, but towards the end of last year, she was approached about the position at VIAC, her experience in arbitration with Freshfields having made her a stand-out candidate. When the selection process was complete, the position was offered to Niamh and she accepted.

“It is very exciting,” Niamh says of her new role. “The subject matter is the same as at Freshfields, because it’s arbitration, but from a different angle. At Freshfields, I would have represented the client but now I will be administering the cases. VIAC administers hundreds of cases per year so I would be still dealing with legal issues. In addition, my role requires me to market the institution and market Vienna as a place of arbitration in central Europe. The marketing side of it really interests me and that’s something you can only do to a limited extent when you are acting as an attorney in a law firm.”

As it happens, in this country, we have the Dublin International Arbitration Centre, but the field is relatively small here compared to continental Europe.

That said, each year for the last five years or so, a Dublin Arbitration Day, has been held, and Niamh has been invited to address it a number of times.

“And I love that because it’s an excuse for me to come home and it’s nice to meet people in the same field, and to connect with those people.”

Pre-pandemic, Niamh came home often, as Ryanair flights directly to and from Vienna make the trip very doable. However, as her eldest child has now started school, travel plans sill hinge on school holidays as much as Covid rules.

Austria was red-listed for a while last year, and Niamh “found that personally very distressing because then it was really a feeling that you could not really get home even if you wanted to because you would have had to hotel quarantine – but hopefully we have left all that in the past”.

Happily settled in a rural area full of riding stables (which pleases her as a keen horsewoman who formerly rode with the Westmeath Hounds), Niamh loves life in Austria: “It is different in that the seasons are very defined here, so winter is very cold and summer is very hot. It is different from that perspective. In the winter time, you would go skiing anywhere. You can drive in your car for an hour and you would be at a ski slope where you can go skiing for a day if you wanted; or go ice skating. There are all those kinds of winter activities. Then in the summer is just very hot. There’s lots of possibilities for going swimming and doing water sports and everything is outdoors.

“And because of all the neighbouring countries, like Italy and Croatia, people tend to get in their cars and go there; like we would do that – drive to Croatia or drive to Italy. It still fascinates me that you can get in your car and do that. For an Irish person that seems so bizarre. From that perspective, it is different.”

There is much Niamh misses about home, though: when she thinks about Ireland, steak (ideally from Tormey’s Butchers!), a proper fry and the effortless friendliness that we ourselves don’t even notice are some of the things that spring to mind – as well, of course, as the Tayto crisps and the Barry’s Tea.

“One big thing that I’ve missed from home is that Irish people are so friendly and welcoming and you only realise that when you go home, how unbelievably welcoming and kind and warm Irish people are in their nature. They’re not making an effort to be like that. They just are like that.

“To be honest, even when you arrive in Dublin Airport from the person who checks your passport, that already is the first thing you notice immediately.”