Opportunities for young lawyers

For most of us, travel opportunities are enormously limited by the costs involved. Going away for months at a time is an even more remote possibility: costs mount even higher and, unless you plan on having a working holiday (which can be very difficult visa-wise in many countries and almost impossible if the kind of work you are after is entry-level legal work), you will have no money coming in. If you’ve just finished law school with a mountain of GDL/LPC/BPTC debts to pay off, a gap year seems even less likely, and undertaking voluntary work or an overseas internship to plump up your CV is an impossible dream.

However, if you hunt around for them, there are a fair few opportunities out there to take advantage of, either that will send you abroad or that provide cash prizes that may well help any travel plans you have. I have provided a list of opportunities below and will detail my experiences of the various opportunities in up-coming posts.

Essay Prizes:

• Bar Council Law Reform Essay Competition

What is it? This is an annual competition run by the Bar Council and details can be found on the Bar Council’s website. It is open to all law students with the intention of a career at the Bar, whether they are undergraduates, GDL or BPTC students. Each year the competition is the same: to write a 3,000 word essay on a potential area of law reform.

Is it worth the effort? There are several prizes available ranging from £500 to £4,000. Of all the essay competitions I have come across this is the biggest potential cash prize and so worthwhile putting some effort in to. Do not cram in an all-nighter the night before the deadline and expect to win. The standard of this competition is unsurprisingly high. The winners, as well as the cash prize, are invited to an event at the Inns of Court which is a great networking opportunity for those looking for pupillage. Even if you do not win, taking part in the competition is a worthwhile exercise. “What area of law most interests you?” or “What law would you reform?” are questions that frequently arise in pupillage interviews. You should have a ready-made expert answer after having participated in this competition.

Top Tip: Try and come up with an original topic. Does the world really need another essay on super-injunctions?

• The Times Law Essay Competition

What is it? This is an annual competition run by The Times and One Essex Court Chambers. Details can be found on The Times website (or simply through a Google-search, which should take you straight to the relevant page of The Times’ website whilst avoiding the pay-wall). It is open to law students of any level, trainee solicitors, pupil barristers, and those in in-between stages. The essay topic changes each year but is always topical, and the word limit is only 1,500.

Is it worth the effort? The winner takes away £3500. Second prize is £2,500 and third prize is £1,500. There are also three runner ups who are awarded £1000 each. All get mentions in The Times and the winner’s essay is published in full in the print paper. Second and third prize essays are published on the Times Online. All winners and runner ups are invited to a dinner with the Justice Secretary and other big name legal types. The prize is prestigious so even runner ups will benefit from recording this on their CV. Even if you don’t win, as the topic is always very topical, chances are it will come up in training contract/pupillage interviews, so participating is great preparation.

Top Tip: Remember, first prize will be published in The Times. Take a “journalistic” rather than an overly academic approach.

• ·         The Law Society Graham Turnbull Human Rights Essay Competition

What is it? This is an annual competition run by The Law Society. Details can be found on The Law Society website. It is open to law students of any level, trainee solicitors, pupil barristers, and those in in-between stages. The essay question changes each year but is always about international human rights law.

Is it worth the effort? The winner takes away £500, and second-place is awarded £250 of book tokens. There are normally around four other runners up who also get a mention and all are invited to the prize-giving ceremony at the Law Society, which again is a good networking opportunity.

Top Tip: In recent years an additional prize for creativity has been awarded, so try not to be too stale in your style.

• ·         The Commonwealth in England Barristers’ Association (CEBA) Essay Competition

What is it? This is an annual competition open to GDL/BPTC students with the intention of pursuing a career at the Bar. CEBA does not have a website so look out for competition details at your introductory session at your Inn. Entrants are required to write a short essay on what they could bring to a law centre in a Commonwealth country.

Is it worth the effort? This competition has now been running for three years and each year the winner has been sent off to a Commonwealth country in order to undertake work experience/volunteer work/mini-pupillages for about one month’s duration. Flight, visa and insurance costs are covered by CEBA. Accommodation is provided, along with a small daily living stipend. James Potts, now of 39 Essex Street, was the first winner and details of his experience in Sri Lanka can be found here http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/law/student-law/article3416171.ece. Last year Tessa Buchanan, now of Garden Court Chambers, went to Ghana and her blog about her experience is available here http://cebainghana.blogspot.com/2012/06/welcome-to-ceba-in-ghana.html. I am currently on day one of my trip to Ghana and details of my trip will follow in later posts.

Top Tip: CEBA hopes that the annual competition will help to forge strong bonds between lawyers in the UK and in Commonwealth nations. Bear this in mind when writing your essay.

• ·      Lawyer2B “Win a Free Place” competition

What is it? This essay competition is run every year by the student supplement of The Lawyer magazine, and details can be found online. Applicants are required to write a short essay on a pro bono project they are aware of. A short-list of the best essays is compiled and each writer then has an interview with the editor to Lawyer2B and the Dean of BPP Law School.

Is it worth it? This prize won’t take you around the world but is so substantial it is worth mentioning. Two prizes are up for grabs each year: one FREE place on the GDL at BPP Law School and one FREE place on the LPC at BPP Law School. So you are looking at the equivalent of around £10,000 savings if you hit the jackpot with this one.

The Inns of Court also run several essay competitions each year, open to student and junior members. Check your Inn's website for details. 

Scholarships and Bursaries:

For those seeking a career at the Bar, the Inns of Court all run a number of scholarships and bursaries. Most of these are intended to assist with the costs of law school, and so are not mentioned here. However, there are a number of opportunities available for travel. I know that Middle Temple provides scholarships for travel to Canada, the USA, Brussels and India (described below). A friend at Gray’s Inn secured some funding to assist with a Death Penalty Project she was working on in Malawi.  Study your Inn’s website well and, if there is something in particular you want to do, contact your Inn’s Education Officer to see if any non-publicised opportunities are available.

Many universities also offer scholarships for those wishing to pursue Master’s level studies. For those who are interested in heading to America, look in to Kennedy Scholarships (for study at Harvard University) or the Fulbright Programme for study all over the USA.

• ·        Lady Templeman-Master Singhvi  Scholarship

What is it? This is an annual scholarship provided to a student member of the Middle Temple Inn to spend around 3 weeks in India. The winner is given £700 to cover flights and visa costs, and accommodation in Delhi is provided. The time in Delhi is spent as a mini-pupillage and students visit the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court and other courts depending on their particular areas of interest. Accommodation is also provided in Jodhpur, where students visit the Law School and do some sight-seeing. Students normally also have the opportunity to visit the Taj Mahal and another city in Rajasthan.

Is it worth the effort? Applications are made by CV and covering letter and all applicants are provided an interview. There is only one winner each year, who is required to write up a report on their visit. Those who do not succeed undoubtedly benefit from the interview experience. My experiences on the scholarship are detailed in later blog posts.

Top Tip: Make sure the interview panel really hears your passion for travel to the subcontinent. It’s also a good idea to have a concrete vision of how you will use/benefit from the scholarship.

• ·        Human Rights Lawyers’ Association Bursaries

What is it? The Human Rights Lawyers’ Association (HRLA) provides a handful of bursaries each year to law students who wish to pursue a career in human rights related work. Recognising that success in this field often demands CVs full of unpaid/underpaid internships, the bursaries are designed to help meet the costs of carrying out such work, whether in the UK or abroad.

Is it worth the effort? Applications are made through an application form available from the HRLA website. Awards rarely amount to more than £1,000 but this can make a huge difference, especially if you are undertaking a voluntary placement overseas. I secured £700 through the bursary scheme and this paid for flights and insurance for my work with Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance in Egypt. Because the bursaries are intended to assist those undertaking internships/volunteer placements, you must have already secured or at the very least applied for your placement before applying for the bursary.

Funding:

• ·        Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowships

What is it? The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust (WCMT) provides funding to all sorts of people who want to carry out research abroad. WCMT funding is not limited to lawyers but rather encompasses virtually every subject you can imagine, from civil society, to sports, to engineering, to health. Extremely generous funding is given to successful applicants with a research proposal (though applicants who are looking for funding for PhD/Master’s theses etc are ineligible). Applicants must wish to travel abroad for a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 12 weeks. Students are unlikely to benefit from funding as the programme is really designed at professional people who want to use their research to benefit/progress their work here in the UK, and they must have a clear plan of how they intend to disseminate their findings.

Is it worth it? The application process can be lengthy and you should check the WCMT website for full details on whether your profile/idea fits what WCMT is looking for. You also need to write a report for the Trust on your findings. However, if you have a good research idea that necessitates travel, WCMT funding is a god-send. I secured over £5000 for my research trip to South Africa, Israel and the USA. 

Others:

Although I do not have experience of this myself, I have been told that the Death Penalty Project sometimes has small sums of money to support their interns working in Malawi and Uganda.

Look out for international mooting and mediation competitions. Finalists are often flown overseas to participate in final rounds.

The Directory of Grant Making Trusts is a great resource for those in search of funding. It is a huge book available that should be available at your local library. It lists individuals, trusts and other organisations with money to give away. The Directory is organised by topic so you should be able to find all the organisations looking to fund whatever project you wish to do. The majority will only fund organisations, not individuals, but there are some – you might just have to put the time in to find them. I managed to secure a small grant a few years ago to teach English in India, awarded by Women for Womenkind Worldwide.

If anyone is aware of other opportunities, please comment below.