A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to
slip into the audience at our recent Back to Basics event.
Although I could not stay the course for the
whole day, it was immediately apparent that it was an outstanding day and the
resulting ‘social media echo’ was testament to the quality of the
presentations, and the ways in which complex concepts were made far more
accessible. So I would like to thank our extraordinarily knowledgeable
Trustees, Neil Brown and Chris James, for their ‘epic performances’ (as one tweeter
put it) and their special guests who helped on the day.
What did impress me was the significant
number of junior lawyers attending, some at an SCL event for the first time.
Engaging new members in our activities is a critical part of the SCL’s mission,
obviously for the Society itself, but also in the course of enhancing know-how
among the legal world and beyond.
Which is why I would love to see as many of
us as possible support our inaugural Student Tech Law Challenge coming up
next February in London. The event will see students and recent graduates
compete in teams of two by living ‘a day in the life of a tech lawyer’
negotiating an IT/ technology contract. It will be their chance to network with
potential employers at an early stage in their careers and see at first hand
the extraordinary range of legal issues that tech law encompasses. It’s a great
idea so hats off to Ryan Adams and Michael Butterworth, the inspirations behind
it.
Here is what we need from you: we are looking
for members either to attend on the day, or even better, to sponsor a prize. May
I suggest an offer of a summer work placement for the winners? The exact date
is to be finalised (it will be a Saturday in February 2018) but I wanted to
give you plenty of warning to put things in place and so we can announce your
involvement as soon as we start to publicise the event. Just get in touch with Caroline
with any offers of support, even if tentative, or if you have any questions.
At the very least we’d like to start signing
up competitors at our first University Ambassadors event for students, slated
for late November. The Ambassadors scheme is another pillar of our student
outreach efforts – read more about the scheme here.
These initiatives do make a difference. My last word this month is to report
the pleasing news that the recipient of our 2017 Bursary, Zoe Christodoulou, has just started her
LLM at QMUL. I hope she is just one of many who we can help benefit in the
future.
