Law School Bulletin  June 2024

We hope you had a fantastic year and are getting ready for the summer! The summer season is always an important moment, when you can reflect on the academic year gone by and on everything you have achieved.

During this period, we very much encourage all of you to take a very well-deserved break and to make sure you have some holiday time. Whether you are working as an intern, on work placement or in paid employment, or whether you are completing referred or deferred assessments, it is still extremely important that you take some proper time off,  and forget about your studies for a while. Make sure to do things that bring you joy and happiness!

Over the summer, the academic and professional services teams are still available to support you, along with the University's Wellbeing Service. (Links to these in the section below).

We wish you all a beautiful, happy, and sunny summer and I am very much looking forward to welcoming you back to the Law School in September.

Caroline

Professor Caroline Fournet, Head of Law School

😊Wellbeing Matters 😀

Congratulations on reaching the end of the academic year! 

Even though it is now the end of term, remember we are always here to support you. If you need to speak to someone over the next few weeks, you can talk to the Amory Hub, the Wellbeing service, Amory Welfare and your Academic Personal Tutor. If you want to talk about your assessment feedback and you have passed all of your assessments, please hold fire as you will have the opportunity to do this with your personal tutor at the start of the new academic year. If you are a student with referred and / or deferred assessments, please see the email that has been sent to you via the Law Office this week about the support that is available to you. Bear in mind that the summer is a time when staff take annual leave and participate in research intensive activities, so there may be a delay to their response if you are reaching out for support. 

The summer recess is an important time for reflection and preparation for the academic year ahead, but don't forget the importance of self-care. Take a well-deserved break and focus on your wellbeing, spend time with family and friends and return refreshed in September.

📰Student News ⌨️

Second year LLB student off to New Zealand

We send our best wishes to Jack Courtney(LLB Year 2) who is off to represent England in Fencing at the Cadet and Junior Commonwealth Games next month. He has been involved in the sport for many years and is the Men's Captain of the University's Fencing Club. Read about Jack's story on this page and watch his interview in the video below. 

Research Centres

The Law School has a variety of Research Centres. You can get to know more about their work by attending their term time lectures and seminars. Our Human Rights and Democracy Forum has its own blog and you can put forward your own writing to be considered. Their latest blog,'Police lethal force and the need for global monitoring', is by Stephen Skinner, Professor of Comparative Legal History and Legal Theory and available on HRDF's webpage here. 

Taskmaster Lessons

Third year students Emilia, Gayle, Julia and Susie have been working with Dr Faye Bird to deliver lessons to primary school children in the style of the TV programme Taskmaster.  Through the project they have developed their leadership and creative skills, as well as interpreting their own learning for these much younger pupils. Read how the students have benefitted from working with the children. 

🔬Spotlight on Employability 💻

If you are thinking of being proactive with all things careers and employability over the summer break, then check out the ideas and resources below:

Work Experience

Here are ideas of some things you could explore to build valuable employability skills and boost future employment applications:

 Virtual Internships:

You can gain valuable experience by completing virtual internships. Find more details for sector wide opportunities including Law here: Forage and Lawyer Portal Virtual Law Work Experience

• Speculative Applications:

You could look at making speculative applications, to smaller firms not offering formal work experience programmes, such as vacation schemes. Speculative applications aren’t made for an advertised job role, instead you’re writing to ask about the possibility of doing informal work experience or shadowing. You can find out more below:  

My Career Zone Digital Speculative Applications  

Prospects How to Write a Speculative Job Application

• Voluntary work:

Is a fantastic opportunity to offer valuable resources to charities and organisations in need at the same time as building valuable employability skills. In the legal sector you can look into pro-bono opportunities and at Exeter we have the Law Clinic, find out more here. There is also some useful information on pro-bono work here and for general volunteering opportunities across sectors you can find out more and search for opportunities here.

CVs, Applications, and Interviews

If you would like help with making good applications you can check out My Career Zone Digital here, there’s a wealth of information and advice including about CVs, cover letters, applications and interviews. Check out CV 360, Interview 360 and the resources under the Compete box.

Linkedin Profile

If you’ve been thinking about building your LinkedIn profile but are unsure where to start, this webpage has some useful information: Career Zone LinkedIn

Student/Graduate Job Sites

Outside of looking at individual firms and chambers websites for job opportunities, see below for ideas of job sites with vacancies across a variety of different job areas (including Law):

·           Handshake

·           Target Jobs

·           Rate my Placement

·           Prospects

·           Milk Round

·           Save the graduate

📆 Opportunities and Events 

Social Mobility Scholarship

Mukhtiar Singh and the Sikh Education Council have launched the 2024 Guru Nanak Social Mobility Scholarships.

The aims of the scholarships are to improve social mobility in professions perceived to be out of reach for those from poorer background and to encourage a wider understanding of Sikh jurisprudence by considering whether society may learn from Sikhism for the benefit of us all. Applications need to be submitted by 09:00, 2 August 2024.

Society News 📢

If you haven't yet joined one of the Students' Guild societies, the new term might be a great time to explore possibilities. We've listed the new ones alongside the longer established societies:

Commercial and Corporate Law Club (exeterguild.com)

Diversity in Law Society (exeterguild.com)

Law and Human Rights Society (exeterguild.com)

Law Socialising Society (exeterguild.com)

Canadian Law Society (exeterguild.com)

International Law Society (exeterguild.com)

Law Conversion Society (exeterguild.com)

Law Society (exeterguild.com)

Women and Law Society (exeterguild.com)

🤳 Law School Socials 😍​​​​

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER LAW SCHOOL

If you would like to see previous editions of the bulletin, they sit on our Law webpages here.  And if you have any suggestions for future editions, or would like to share a story with us, please email lawcomms@exeter.ac.uk. Fin