Organisation Details

February Winners - Bar Society

NAME OF EVENT - Welcome Event/Refreshers 

PLEASE TELL US THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE EVENT - 

To introduce the Brighton Bar Society to the wider public and to raise the profile of law students at the University within the legal community. This was a great success and had many attendees due to our high profile which we are trying to keep by holding weekly events; we held a moot talk (29/01/21) by a first-year student who participated in a moot and within the same week wanted to give her insight in the process of a moot and how to help others and encourage to join moot competitions. We also had a cv/cover letter talk by Christina Keiller (9/02/21) which was a great success and provided detail on how to make a CV successful and stand out, many students found this beneficial. Many more events took place since November which has brought us to our Welcome Event with many participants wanting to join us to benefit from all our ongoing events. 

HOW DID THE ATTENDEES PARTICIPATE? 

Attendees including: Debra Humphries, Lloyd Russell-Moyle (MP), Andrew Blackman (Deputy Lord Lieutenant and high sheriff), Michelle Diskin-Bates (Author and legal activist). We were also joined by Richard Ager (Barrister at 1COR), Mary Prior QC, Jacob Meagher, Brontie Ansell, Jack Thompson and Claire-Michelle Smith, who all gave a 5-10 minute talk on how the Bar society could help students to reach their full potential to accessing the Bar, Brontie spoke about benefits of joining the Legal Clinic to Law Students. At the beginning of the event, before the speakers started we put questions on the chatbox where the attendees responded, to get their full engagement, we made sure everyone felt welcomed as they entered the room as we said Hi to them and made sure everyone felt at ease by allowing them to bring a drink of choice to the event to make it less formal yet educational and fun. Student attendees thereafter asked questions they had to all our speakers which were answered promptly and with pleasure. Even though it was over zoom we felt the presence of everyone as most attendees had their camera on, with smiles on everyone's faces and great feedback written back to us after the event.

WHAT DID YOU LEARN? 

We learned that a lot of effort goes into preparing an event and how well we can all work together, and to pick up something where someone can't. We learnt how to keep engagement high even when awkward silences may occur to make sure no one leaves the meeting. Most of all we learned that much of a legal community wants to engage with lesser-known universities to raise our profile and increase social mobility. We have since had offers of support from the legal community and other universities, which means lots of potential collaborative projects ahead. 

HOW DID THE EVENT BENEFIT STUDENTS?

Our students were able to see that we are an established society that is dedicated to meetings their needs within the legal arena. They have learned that access to the Bar is a niche and difficult area and that they will need extra help and guidance to be able to attain this. With Brighton Bar society here to bridge the gap between the students' needs and the legal community, students know that they have a much better chance of reaching their goals. We have since had students keen to sign up for our events that we are running after our success of our Grand Welcome Event.