I am applying to 8 LLM programs ranging from Columbia and U of Chicago to Northwestern LLMK to Fordham.

Unfortunately, my uni grades are only average (mid level 2:1). Do i have a hope of getting in? I am a qualified lawyer in Ireland with 2 1/2 years experience in corporate/commercial private practice. Have lots of extra-carricular interests etc but unsure about the standard of other applicants.

Any advice/help?

sometimes this depends on who is applying the year that you're applying. if the chief justice of your country applies this year and your target school only takes in one guy from your country every year, then your chances are not good. i had hoped that the year i applied (which was last year), only people from my country who had literature phds (but no law degrees) would apply. alas, such was not the case.

I agree with Corleone.
Moreover, I believe the Universities make pools of candidates from certain familiar countries.
For instance, I believe that Spanish, Portuguese and Italian are placed within the same "basket".
Irish should be placed in the basket of English, Scotish...

something that should be helpful for you though, is that i spoke with columbia peeps and they said that they don't use harvard's quota system. they say that as long as you fit the requirements, they will accept you.

like this year, they accepted so many french students because so many were qualified, compared to previous years, where only very few french would apply, so only a few french dudes would be taken. i asked, so is it possible for you to admit 20 people from my country (not ireland), and they said, "yes! as long as they qualify, we will admit them."

i guess it's because columbia is thinking that of those 20 that they admitted, maybe 3 will go to harvard, 2 will go to yale, maybe 10 will go to nyu, michigan, gtown because they got scholarships, so only 5 will end up going to columbia.

we don't know what the "requirements" are, so that may be a problem.