This subseries consists of material relating to 2 Hare Court, Temple, London, and Mary Robinson's work as Member of Chambers, 1988-2014, and is arranged chronologically across five files.

[Archivist's Note: 2 Hare Court is a barristers' chambers specialising in criminal and regulatory law, located in the Inner Temple, one of the four Inns of court, the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. According to Mary Robinson's memoir "Everybody Matters", she joined chambers at 2 Hare Court "around 1987, at the invitation of my friend Anthony Lester, QC, one of the great human rights lawyers of our generation", having been called to the Middle Temple in 1973 (See P143/1/1).]

Correspondence and other material relating to 2 Hare Court, and Mary Robinson (MR)'s work as a member, including minutes, accounts, draft constitution and reports; correspondence with Anthony Lester, QC, Martin Smith, Clerk to Chambers and TM Barker, Director and other members of Chambers; correspondence with Forrester, Norall and Sutton, Brussels. Material also relates to Chambers Seminar on Community Law (17/02/1990) and includes list of participants.

[Archivist's Note: Material overlaps with the start of MR's term as President of Ireland (04/12/1990-12/09/1997) and letters from Lester in December 1990 refer to her inauguration and to her no longer working with 2 Hare Court. Also overlaps with Euro Avocats (see P143/1/6)]

Correspondence and other material relating to 2 Hare Court, and Mary Robinson (MR)'s work as a member, including minutes, reports and newsletters. Includes letter from Ann Lane, Personal Assistant to President MR, to John Mottram, Chief Executive, General Counsel of the Bar stating that as President of Ireland, MR was no longer a practicing barrister and it was therefore not appropriate for her to continue to be a member of the Bar during her term of office, 08/03/1991; chapter on Freedom of Expression, by Lester, for book on European Convention of Human Rights, 16/07/1991.

[Archivist's Note: See also Euro Avocats, P143/1/6].

Correspondence, minutes, reports, newsletters and other material relating to 2 Hare Court, and Mary Robinson (MR)'s work as a member, 1993-1999. In a brochure on Two Hare Court Barristers, Temple London, 1992 (cover letter 03/08/1993), MR is listed as an Associate Member.

Correspondence and other material relating to 2 Hare Court, and Mary Robinson (MR)'s work as a member, 2000-2014, including circulars and fixture lists relating to events (2000, 2002, 2014); Bench Lists for 2009 and 2012; magazine The Middle Templar, Issue 51, Winter 2011; correspondence from Ms Hilary Woodard, Editor, Middle Temple Bench Book, 11/08/2014.

This subseries consists of material relating to the setting up and running of Euro Avocats, 1989-1990. As per documentation in this subseries, Euro Avocats was set up to be a European set of Chambers, to meet needs for legal services within the community and EFTA [European Free Trade Association] countries, ACP countries [African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States] and elsewhere, and was possibly jointly founded by Mary Robinson and Anthony Lester. It was launched October 1989.

Some material in this subseries has been closed to adhere to GDPR regulations.

Correspondence, agendas and documents related to the setting up of Euro-Avocats, and the holding of the first meeting in October 1989.

Correspondence, minutes and other material for Euro Avocats including menu for dinner at Garrick Club, possibly hosted by Sir Anthony Lester, QC, 16/02/1990; newsletter for Walder Wyss and Partner, Zurich, May 1990; thank you letter from Mary Robinson to other members for special dinner in her honour to mark her nomination for President of Ireland, with menu signed by attendees, 13/06/1990, and list of members by country with their working addresses and contact details.

The ICEL [Irish Centre for European Law] was founded, June 1988 by Mary Robinson (MR), to advance legal education by focusing on issues arising from the European Community's Single Market Programme, which was designed to achieve an integrated market of ca 320 million by the end of 1992. This initiative was taken at a time when university cutbacks would otherwise have inhibited academic developments in this field. Established and based in Trinity College Dublin, ICEL had MR as its director for the 1st two years, and as Chair of the Executive Board, with Nicholas Robinson (NR) as Administrator. At some point in 1991, Alex Shuster took over as Director and Pauline Curtin as Administrator. NR continued for an unknown period on Board, and MR is listed as a Patron.

Material consists of memorandum and articles of associations (P143/1/7/1), material relating to a two-year policy-oriented project known as the Study Group on European Citizenship (P143/1/7/2), correspondence, minutes, agendas (P143/1/7/3,4), pamphlets, membership forms, flyers and newsletters (P143/1/7/5) and material relating to MR’s visit to Sweden, as Director of ICEL, May 1990.

Memorandum and articles of associations of Irish Centre for European Law Limited x 3 (13/5/1988).