"I am keen to pass on what I have been"

Can you describe your academic and professional background?

I joined the Reims campus of Sciences Po in 2015 with the desire to become a journalist. As a French-Irish citizen, I was also attracted by studying in a bilingual environment.

I quickly turned to legal subjects. I did my third year at the Faculty of Law of Leiden in the Netherlands to study fundamental rights and European Union law.

Wishing to become a lawyer, I chose to follow the Master in Economic Law at the Sciences Po Law School.

I then did a gap year between my first year of Master’s and my second year of Master’s. I did an internship at J.P. Karsenty & Associés in criminal law and white-collar crime, and an internship at the Criminal Chamber Litigation Office of the Cour de Cassation, the French judiciary supreme court.

This gap year convinced me to become a lawyer in criminal law and press law and allowed me to better understand the issues that a lawyer faces on a daily basis.

In 2020, I joined the Programme "Contentieux Économique et Arbitrage" at the Law School directed by Professor Dany Cohen, in order to perfect my knowledge of judicial, administrative and arbitral litigation and to improve my legal reasoning and my writing skills.

In order to specialize in press law, I joined the Master’s 2 Media Law of the Panthéon-Assas University in 2021. I did this Master’s while working at the law firm of Delphine Meillet.

I passed the bar exam (“CRFPA”) in 2021 and I will join the bar school (“École de formation professionnelle des barreaux ”) in January 2023.

I have also recently started teaching. I was in charge of tutorials at the Paris-Est Créteil University (UPEC) in general criminal law and am now a teaching assistant in the Programme "Contentieux Économique et Arbitrage".

Why do you also want to teach?

Sciences Po, and the Law School, offered me a lot as a student. In my opinion, the key to our teaching is to learn how to construct a reasoning regardless of the legal subject concerned.

The law that we learned a few years ago is not the same today. It will perhaps have completely disappeared in ten years. It is therefore important to understand the law not as a body of texts but as a tool.

This is the common thread running through all of the courses taught in the Master's degree in Economic Law, courses that are often led by practitioners who are passionate about their profession.

I am keen to pass on what I have been taught, as so many professors have done with me.

How did you become interested in studying law?

I entered Sciences Po wanting to be a journalist, and it was during my first year and my law classes that I quickly realized that this was the subject that attracted me the most. I have always liked debating, and doing law allowed me to structure my reasoning and my words, and sometimes even enabling me to be right!

What are your plans?

I will soon be a lawyer and I would like to specialize in criminal law and digital law, especially in press law.

I also wish to continue teaching. It is a real pleasure to be able to pass on my knowledge and to debate with students.

Any advice for those who would like to join the Law School?

My advice would be to take a gap year between their first year of Master’s and their second year to do internships in law firms, companies, institutions...

Doing a gap year is a way to test your appetences, discover the job you want to do and also confirm your ambitions. It also means getting to know yourself professionally and discovering what you want to do (or not)!

You have to know how to let yourself be surprised. My internships made me discover press law, and I now want to make it my career!

Cliona Noone, Graduate of the Sciences Po Law School, Master in Economic Law, Programme Contentieux économique et arbitrage (CEA), 2021.