Friendship & Learning

Thank you for purchasing your membership for UWE Law Society. If you’re new to UWE, we want to wish you a warm welcome to our university and to our society. If you are a returning member, it’s fantastic to have you back! We are the only student society for law at UWE and it is our role to provide you with

a balance of academic and social events, ensuring you are getting the most out of your studies at UWE. Our plans for this academic year are vast and varied and we’ve enclosed in this booklet a wealth of information about the society and our events. We hope you’re as excited as we are about this year

Welcome to the University of the West of England Law Society

Academic

Being an academic society and the only student body for law at UWE, we strive to provide as many

academic opportunities and experiences as possible. Law is a tough but interesting subject, and it is our aim to enhance it with trips and on-campus events to ensure you’re getting the most from your law degree at UWE.

Amsterdam: Trip: One of our most successful events last year was a trip to the EU Parliament and CJEU, so we’ve decided to arrange another trip abroad this year. Our destination will be Amsterdam where we will tour the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice respectively. The trip will be leaving on Thursday 20th November, travelling through the night, reaching Amsterdam by Friday morning. Friday is spent relaxing, settling in to your weekend accomodation and exploring the local area. Saturday will see UWELS tour the ICC and ICJ, getting a true insight into the work of each court and the types of cases they hear. Finally, Sunday will be

another relaxing day; take in the sights and sounds of this fantastic little city! Guest Speakers: Vocational experience is vital in the world of law today so where better to hear about it than from the professionals doing the jobs you aspire to? Inviting solicitors and barristers, firms and chambers and alumni provides quality information and advice to students, further providing the opportunity for your questions to be answered.

Mooting: Mooting is the most vital experience you can have during a law degree at any university so we encourage all students to participate in it. We organise internal competitions as well as varsity with other universities in Spring.

SOCIALS

HINTSTIPS &

TRIPS

Social As a law student your workload will be vast, however it’s important to maintain a balance and ensure you’re staying socially active and, more importantly, enjoying your degree!

Paris Trip: This year we will be taking students to Paris for a weekend of sight-seeing, shopping and fun! Paris is a beautiful city and the perfect place to relax and unwind with friends, particularly after exams! The trip will be leaving on the evening of Thursday 19th March, travelling through the night, and arriving in Paris on Friday morning. Beyond that - it’s up to you! You can spend the weekend freely in Paris doing as little or as much as you’d like. This trip is just an opportunity to have a fantastic weekend with friends, so do just that in whichever way you prefer! There are open-top tour buses if you’d like to sit back and see the sights or you can take advantage of Paris’ metro system and go on your own, custom adventure! On Sunday 22nd, we’ll say “au revoir” and return to the UK by Sunday evening. Pub Quiz: This year will see UWELS host two pub quizzes on campus: one in autumn and one in spring. This event is reserved only for law society members and it’s therefore a fantastic opportunity to form a team with friends and be tested on Bristol, the law and general knowledge for a prize!

Members of the law society (left) enjoying the trip to CJEU in Luxembourg 2014

Fact:

Josh Purser & Luke Harding (above image) competed in an inter university mooting competition. These members

of the law society and mooting society took on schools like Jesus College. Oxford & hertfordshire

FUNADVICE

Committee

Contact US:

Your

UWE Law Society has seven committee members, each with a different role and remit that you should be aware of. You’ll be hearing from us, or about us, over the next year.

General enquiries should be sent to our main email address however if you wish to contact a committee member directly, details are below.

President Emma Louise Harding Emma5.Harding@live.uwe.ac.uk

Vice-President/Master of Moots Joshua Purser Joshua2.purser@live.uwe.ac.uk

Treasurer Jordan Ness Jordan2.Ness@live.uwe.ac.uk

Participation and Equality Officer

Emma Trevett Emma2.Trevett@live.uwe.ac.uk

Events and Fundraising Officer Jamal Awolaja Jamal2.Awolaja@live.uwe.ac.uk

Media and Publicity Officer Phillip Langdon Phillip2.Langdon@live.uwe.ac.uk

External Funding Officer Samuel Pearcey Samuel2.Pearcey@live.uwe.ac.uk

uwelawsociety @UWELawSociety1

uwelawsociety@live.comuwesu.org/soc/law

Hi! I’m Emma and I’m the President of your UWE Law Society for this academic year. Welcome to the society! My role involves overseeing the committee,

ensuring everyone is working hard to provide the best for our members and providing advice and guidance to the committee if needed. As President, I must also ensure that the society’s aims and principles are always maintained and adhered to. I have a great deal of passion and enthusiasm for the society and the work we do and I hope all of our members enjoy the trips and events we organise.

PrESIdENT

My name is Josh Purser and I am in my final year at UWE reading Law. I am the Vice President of your Law Society and I want to extend to you a warm

welcome not only to the university but also to the society. It is my job to ensure, alongside the President, that the society runs smoothly and ensure that your elected committee are working the way that you want. I am very excited about this academic year and you are very fortunate to have a motivated team bringing you a number of different activities and trips, notably the criminal trial and Murder Mystery events. I look forward to meeting you all at different points in the year.

VICE PrESIdENT ANd MASTEr OF

MOOTS

As Treasurer of UWELS, it is my role to oversee the budget of the society, ensuring that we maintain a good level of funds in order to be able to

run events, trips and the like. More importantly, it is my job to ensure that costs to you – the members – are as low as possible, and offer the best possible return on your membership fees. Out event calendar for 2014-15 is full of exciting events, making it difficult to choose a favourite.

TrEASUrEr

CommitteeIntroduction

My name is Emma Trevett and I am the Participations and Equality Office of your Law Society. It is my role to ensure that any events we offer are accessible for

all students. I hope you will take some time in your busy Fresher’s week to meet us and find out how we can enhance your university experience. We have a wide variety of events on offer this year we hope you will enjoy. We provide both academic or recreational trips, meaning there really is something for everyone! I am looking forward to taking our society abroad to absorb new cultures and jurisdictions!

PArTICIPATION ANd EQUALITY

OFFICEr

As a final year undergrad, my only advice is to make the most out of all the available opportunities at university. My role as UWELS Events and Fundraising Officer falls

under this remit. In the next year an aim, with the help of the committee, is to ensure you get the most out of your society membership. This includes a mixture of events: social and professional. There are potential varsity events against University of Bristol in the pipeline, something members should keep an eye out for! Finally, we are here for you and will look to take on any input for the society’s benefit. Welcome and here’s to a good year!

As the Media and Publicity Officer for the UWELS, its my role to keep everyone updated (by my loud Canadian voice) the exciting events that we have planned

for the upcoming year. If you see me around on campus (not hard to miss; look for a guy with a Canadian flag on his backpack) why not stop to chat or a grab coffee! Any questions you have I’m willing to pass them onto my fellow committee members so that we can make your UWELS more enjoyable!

MEdIA ANd PUBLICITY OFFICEr

EVENTS ANd FUNdrAISING

OFFICEr

It is an honour to be the first to fill the new role of ‘External Funding Officer’ 2014-2015. Broadly, my task is to ensure that your £5 membership fee stretches as far as possible by seeking

sponsorship from departments and bodies external to the UWE Student Union. Along with our annual budget, this will be used to subsidise the Law Society’s activities during the year. I wish you all the best for the year to come and hope that you find the Law Society to offer useful, supplementary support, socially and academically.

ExTErNAL FUNdING OFFICEr

Events InformationFor many of our events this autumn/winter, some information has been provided in

advance. We want to provide you with as much opportunity as possible to read about our events and decide which ones you’d like to participate in. We have

included dates, costs, spaces available and a general description of the event below. Any questions about our events can be raised at our Welcome Meeting and further information will also be provided there.

Solicitor v BarristerEvent 16th October 2014 This free event will see a variety of individuals who are currently either solicitors or barristers coming into UWE to discuss their profession in detail. This will include their typical daily working life, role within the legal system, earning capacity and the ‘pros and cons’ of each profession. The event is free and the room can accommodate up to 50 students

Murder Mystery Night 25th October 2014 We have 30 spaces for our first ‘big’ event of the year – Murder Mystery party! Every guest will be given a role before the event and everyone is expected to ‘fancy dress’ accordingly. Suddenly, a murder will occur and it is up to the guests to use their networking abilities to

FRIENDSHIP

find information and, ultimately, the culprit! The evening will be £5 per person and that includes attendance and all refreshments. Tickets are on sale now. Mock Trial - 29th November 2014So you caught the culprit at the Murder Mystery party and now they become the defendant in a murder trial. Participation in the trial is free with your ticket to the Murder Mystery and you will be given one of four roles within the trial (court clerk, juror, witness, and barrister).

Pub Quiz -12th November 2014 UWELS is hosting its own pub quiz! It will cost £1 per person with teams of up to 6 permitted. Questions will be on Bristol, law and general knowledge. The bar will be open and there will be a prize for the highest scoring team!

MOOTING

Studying Law at our University

UWE has been rated 32nd in the UK for law at university level. We’ve trounced our historic rivals the University of Bristol and many others for both satisfaction and quality. The Bristol Institute of Legal Practice (BILP) is situated here and Bristol Law School (BLS) is a leading provider of legal qualifications. Law as a degree is challenging but interesting. UWE has a variety

of facilities to enhance and better your studies here. We have mock courtrooms, a fantastic library and continued and improved use of the internet via MyUWE and Blackboard.

UWELS strives to further boost your degree and ensure you make the most of your three years here. We not only act as a social platform but also a supportive and accommodating network for your studies. We want to provide trips, events and experiences that we believe will enhance your studies and leave you feeling good about UWE and about law as a subject. We welcome questions and suggestions about the services we offer, so please get in touch if you have an idea for a trip or event, or something you feel we should be doing for you.

Useful Information

MootingMooting is, in essence, a mock appeal in an appellate court. If you sign up for a moot, you will be given a fictitious client, a set of facts and a point of appeal. You’ll be told whether you’re an appellant or a respondent and therefore what arguments you should be making. You will give the judges a ‘skeleton argument’ before the moot itself and then stand up in a barrister’s robes on the day to deliver your case to the judge.

This can all seem wildly confusing and/or scary. With experienced mooters on the committee, however, we will be there to guide you until you have the skills and confidence to moot without help. Mooting can be daunting, but it’s an absolute necessity for your CV and skill-building for your chosen legal profession.

We are having a mooting introductory session on Friday 26th September and it’s vital you attend if you wish to participate in mooting this year and want to know how. The session will cover skeleton arguments, submissions, legal research, advocacy, court bundles, court etiquette and process and finally, watch a ‘mock moot’. We will also be discussing the first set of moots you can participate in, and when our internal competition will begin. Furthermore, ‘Mooting Packs’ will be handed out to those that attend – this document will cover everything discussed at the session and more (and it’s something you can use all year).

PRACTICEADVOCACY

What Next?

On Wednesday 24th September, we are having a Fresher’s

Welcome meeting to discuss more thoroughly our plans for this year

and we encourage everyone to attend. We’ll be covering our

activities, events and trips, as well as opening the floor for a Q&A

session with committee members. This welcome meeting will include

far more information about our events and trips than this welcome

pack so we urge everyone who wants to get involved with some

(or all!) of the events to attend. We also recommend checking out

our Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as our website, for any

updates or current news.

And finally…The whole committee would like to once again wish you a very warm welcome to UWE, to our law school and to our Law Society. If you’re a returning member, it’s fantastic that you want to get involved again this year. Being on the committee of UWE Law Society is a privilege and we love providing members with memorable and enjoyable events and experiences. We wish everyone all the success with their studies and hope you have a brilliant year with us!

Be sure to keep updated with events news, ticket sales and more using our social media profiles. If you have any questions, please feel free to stop and speak to a committee member around campus or contact us using our email address.

LEDSTUDENT-