On completion of her A Levels at Hymers College, Lucy continued her education at Newcastle University where she studied law.  From there, she attended the University of Law in Leeds to complete her LPC in 2018.  She then went straight into a training contract at Rollits LLP in Hull and qualified into their Employment Law team as a solicitor in 2020 (mid-pandemic!). 

During my time at Rollits I also served on the Board of Hull Young Professionals. They arrange networking events for young business people in Hull to promote Hull as a fun and attractive place for young professionals to live and work, whilst also providing opportunities to build business relationships and develop their career. 

I worked in Leeds for a short period, however my team at Rollits, the culture there and the friends I made drew me back. After being back for just under a year, I was promoted to Senior Solicitor which was a nice surprise! I really enjoy my work in employment law and every day is different, looking at issues from both an employer and employee perspective.

In my new role, I am undertaking a wide variety of employment law work and also a number of business development opportunities, including speaking at employment law seminars. In early June, I will be sitting on a panel at an event as part of Humber Business Week, contributing to workshops focused on the legal aspects of issues women face at work.

Lucy on her first day at school

Lucy studied at Hymers College for ten years, from 2004 until 2014.  She really liked all of my teachers throughout school, however, there were definitely a few that stood out.

Mr Exley terrified me until he became my Business Studies teacher in Year 10, as he used to stand outside of assembly and catch any late comers.  However, once he became my teacher I realised he wasn’t that scary and was very funny! He taught me from Year 10 to Year 13, both Business Studies and Economics, and he made what could have been quite boring topics very interesting.  He also had a lot of time to talk to each of his students on a personal everyday level and give some good life advice (whilst also taking the mickey out of any occurrences from the weekends which he had caught wind of!).

Mr O’Donnell was my older sister’s form teacher in Year 7, when he joined Hymers in 2004 and he was also my form teacher (as well as my A-level history teacher) for Years 12 and 13 in 2012-14. He left Hymers when I left in 2014, I believe to return to Northern Ireland, and it was a running joke with him that the Trynkas started and ended his career at Hymers! He organised some great trips to Belfast, Derry and Dublin, which I attended in Years 9 to 13 and on which he would tell us all amazing stories of his time growing up in the Bogside, even showing us his childhood home! 

Other favourites included a lot of the Sports teachers, such as Mr Walmsley and Mrs Tapley, who were all very funny and really put a lot of effort into helping us achieve successes, whilst also making practices and matches, fun and enjoyable, despite us definitely not being the best behaved at times! I definitely think this played a role in why I still love sport now.

Lucy originally wanted to do Business Studies at university as she didn’t have a set career choice in mind.  After taking advice though from Mr O’Donnell and Mr Exley, who both suggested law as a potential option, she changed her mind. They both helped her by proofreading all her applications with about two days to go before the deadline, enduring a few teenage breakdowns along the way!

While at Hymers College, Lucy enjoyed taking part in a range of sporting activities.

I loved sports at school; hockey and tennis in particular were my favourite and I played sport most Saturdays throughout my time at Hymers. My pairing in tennis happened to be my best friend and so that made spending Saturdays at school during the summer more enjoyable.  Although I do vividly remember us getting reprimanded by Ms Ferguson for demolishing too many post-match kitkats before the other team got a chance to have any! We were told to “back away from the kitkats!!”.

Lucy with the Tennis Team in 2009

Lucy has remained in contact with friends that she met at Hymers, including two from her first day at school and her boyfriend is also an Old Hymerian.

I am lucky that two of my best friends are still my best friends that I made on my first day of year four at Hymers and so we have a lot of memories and photos to look back on. We still talk almost every day, go on holiday with each other and see a lot of each other, despite us not all living in the same area.

I am still in a WhatsApp group with around 10 of my close friends from Hymers which was created for the purposes of sorting arrangements for our Year 11 prom (over 10 years ago!) and which we still talk regularly on. Most of the girls from school now live in London or Leeds, with a couple currently in Australia and New Zealand. 

Two of my close friends from Hymers are getting married this year and next year near Leeds and I am so excited to see our group of friends from school back together for the celebrations!

My boyfriend is also one of my sister’s best friends from school, something we would have never predicted when we were both at Hymers 12 years ago!

During her time at Hymers College, Lucy made many happy memories and enjoyed her time at the school. 

I got the chance to go on a lot of trips both in the UK and abroad whilst at Hymers, including Normandy in France, Belfast, Dublin, and hockey tours in Holland. However, the standout trip was definitely one to Italy in year 9 with a lot of my close friends, which if I remember correctly was for over a week! We were trusted to have a lot of independent time shopping, eating ice cream and going to restaurants which was amazing as a 14 year old and we still talk about the funny memories made on that trip.

Congratulation, Lucy.  Good Luck in the new role.