Your QM Law For All Society Newsletter
Congrats!- We are slowly approaching the end of the academic year...well done! This time of year can be stressful and with that comes difficulty in relaxing- we hope this edition of the newsletter offers some productive procrastination!
We have now completed the last of our Studying in Law event series, where we had the honour of hosting some incredible speakers and collaborating with other brilliant societies- now, with the end of teaching looming, it's time we all congratulate ourselves on all we have achieved this year.
In this recent edition of the newsletter you can look forward to our recent election results, our Family Law event recap (Practise Vs Academia), and our month's key term with more resources and opportunities!
ELECTION RESULTS
Thank you to all those who voted and those who nominated themselves for positions on next years committee, the results are in!
THE UPCOMING COMMITTEE OF 2022/23:
PRESIDENT: Saahir Nazar
VICE-PRESIDENT: Tamyah Jones
TREASURER: Chamonix-Isla Cashmore
HEAD OF EVENTS: Maryam Al-Makhzoumi
SOCIAL SECRETARY: Iven Shen
Congrats to you all! We look forward to be able to continue watching the society flourish in your hands!
FAMILY LAW EVENT RECAP
Missed our Family Law Event? Here is a round up of the last event in the Studying Law series! WHO WERE THE SPEAKERS? Yasmin Hughes-Pugh is a Barrister at 29 Bedford Row, where she works on cases across all areas of Family law with a focus on financial remedy work and private children law matters. Rachel Frith is a full time PhD student at Queen Mary with an interest in the legal recognition of transgender and non-binary parental identities. Rachel has previously worked as a paralegal in Family and Children law, and recently completed an LLM in Legal theory. WHAT IS FAMILY LAW LIKE? Family law is a multi-faceted area. Within Family law, you can expect to undertake tasks and cases that involve tax law, HMRC, trusts and company law through issues involving shared assets. Family law isn't just parental and children relations and this makes for a much more complex field that isn't as well known. PRACTISE VS ACADEMIA PRACTISE Yasmin took us through her motivations for practise and how Family law makes you feel as though you are making a real difference to other lives. In practise, you have to work out what is fair and you have to carve an outcome that is best for your client and the case at hand- this can be tough and emotionally taxing, but you have to remember that it 'is not your life'. To be objective is the best thing for your client as 'no one wants a therapist to cry with you.' Wise words! In practise, it is the norm to have varied weeks with office work, court, conferences and talks. ACADEMIA Rachel told us how, when practising, she realised that a life of 9-5 wasn't for her and instead she now searches for ways to give back and improve the legal system for the most vulnerable through her research rather than practise. Rachel told us that although a competitive field, researching a niche interest is a rewarding way to contribute to the legal sphere. For a PhD, you have to apply for funding as you go along and have a thesis that others want more research in. If you like the journey and process of research, and want to see it into fruition, academia could be for you! HELPFUL TIPS Yasmin offered us some tips on the profession: - To get into Family law, or if any aspects of the field interest you, volunteering at domestic abuse charities are an extremely rewarding place to gain experience and to help the lives of others. - The first step into law is to decide whether you want to be a solicitor or barrister. This can be achieved through research, societies and experience. - If you want to be a barrister, or want to see a snippet as to what it is like, engage in mooting, debates, mock trials and pupillage fairs! - Network! Set up LinkedIn, even if you don't have anything to post right away! With this, Yasmin told us how 'if you don't ask, you won't get'. In this field the majority of individuals are willing to help if they can as they know how difficult it is. Don't be afraid to ask for help and opportunities! - What makes you stand out from the crowd? 'Everyone has done mooting, everyone is smart, everyone has debated, what makes you, you? Be introspective and be human.'
A THANK YOU! STUDYING LAW EVENT SERIES
With the recap of our Family Law event concluded, that is officially the end of our Studying Law event series.
We had the chance to host some amazing speakers and collaborate with equally amazing societies and we wanted to say a huge thank you!
Not only to those who participated in the events, but a thank you to all those who attended! It was a great chance to get to know more about the world of law, but also to get to know other members and put some faces to names.
WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE WORLD?
1) P&O FERRIES MASS REDUNDANCIES
3 MINS READ
In March, P&O Ferries sacked 800 staff via a video recording in a bid to save money by replacing them with cheaper agency workers. After yearly losses of £100m, P&O justified the dismissals as 'necessary'. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? P&O Ferries decided to sack 800 of their staff via a video message which is, without a doubt, justified in causing the public's outrage. Not only this, but it also means that P&O have possibly breached employment law in two instances. If a company wishes to dismiss 20 or more workers, they have to consult their trade union. P&O have admitted to sacking the 800 members of staff without consultation from their trade union, and stated that the sacked employees would be given a compensation of at least £15,000, with 40 individuals receiving amounts of over £100,000. However, Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) are advising workers not to sign the severance agreements in the case of legal action. But it may not be wise for workers to pursue the line of unfair dismissal as the 'enhanced severance packages' (due to lack of notice) that P&O are offering are said to match or exceed the awards this would offer. When a company plans to make 100 or more staff redundant, they have to give 45 days notice, in writing, to the business secretary before the dismissals and before notice is given to the employees. Boris Johnson stated in late March that the company had broken the law by failing to notify the government of their mass dismissals. However, lawyers have suggested that this is incorrect as the ships were registered overseas. Changes to the law in 2018 state that if employees are working on a ship registered in another country, the company have to inform the correct authorities in the registered country, rather than the country the ship operates in. The ships were registered in Cyprus and the Bahamas. In Cyprus the authorities need to be notified with 45 days notice, and in Bermuda and the Bahamas it is 30 days. Maritime lawyers have been questioning as to whether the competent authorities of the registered countries were in fact correctly notified. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? P&O's owner, DP world has come under fire for the sackings and has now resigned from its status as a formal partner in one of the Government's biggest freeport projects. DP World will no longer benefit from the funding this project offers, which was reported as at least amounting to £50mil of taxpayer support. To add to P&O's already existing financial troubles, they are now at trial with the public. The reputation of the company has sunk and their finances are set to sink further with a boycott from the public and the demands of protective unions. The mass redundancies bring into conversation the effectiveness of the UK employment protections. Are they too weak? This has been sparked specifically due to how only UK-based workers were dismissed. According to RMT, employees under Dutch and French contracts were not dismissed due to how the contracts offer stronger protections. The Trade Union Congress has requested the Government to bring forward a protective bill to strengthen workplace protections against unfair dismissal, punishable by a penalty on employers who breach them.
COMMERCIAL AWARENESS RESOURCES
In each newsletter, we will provide you with two commercial awareness resources that are useful!
Here are our TOP 2 PICKS this week:
BBC Business Daily - Everyday, increase your commercial awareness with daily podcasts with simple breakdowns of what is going on in the world! These podcasts are each available for 30 days so it's easy to catch up and work around your day-to-day schedule! The Business Daily podcast is presented by Manuela Saragosa and Ed Butler; cumulatively they have nearly 50 years of experience in the Business journalism field. You can also sign up to the BBC World Service Newsletter! CLICK HERE Business Daily Podcast List.
The Lawyer Portal Commercial Awareness blogs - The Lawyer Portal have an extensive list of commercial awareness blog posts that are up to date with the latest commercial affairs. Not only do the regular blogs expand your awareness, they also cover ways in which to demonstrate and apply this in interviews. The Lawyer Portal concern themselves with the shaping of future lawyers, and their blogs are no different! CLICK HERE Commercial Awareness.
KEY TERM
The key term of the newsletter is 'QUALIFYING WORK EXPERIENCE' (QWE)… Qualifying work experience is now a requirement for the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) route in order to become a qualified solicitor. Under this recent requirement, aspiring solicitors through the SQE route must undertake two years of full time (or equivalent) Qualifying Work Experience. QWE can be completed in up to four different organisations, and can occur before or after you complete the SQE exams, although it is advised and expected that it is completed before SQE2 as the skills gained in practise will aid in this exam. This work experience has to be integral to a career in law. It has to offer you insight into legal work and a provision of legal services. This aims to develop the characteristics needed to be a solicitor and the work undergone must fulfil competencies set out in the statement of solicitor competence. Here are some helpful links: What counts as Qualifying Work Experience? Further and more in-depth information on Qualifying Work Experience.
Check out this short video of FAQ's about Qualifying Work Experience (QWE) from QLTS!
CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES
DEADLINE 6/5/22- FOR SCHOLARSHIPS AT THE INNS OF COURT! If you're applying for either: LLM (two year conversion), LLB (postgraduate conversion) or the GDL...The Inns of Court are offering 2022 students a total of £200,500 worth of scholarships. In 2020, almost 30% of applicants received a scholarship award! Click the links below to find out more about the process from each of the Inns of Court: Gray's Inn Inner Temple Middle Temple Lincoln's Inn 26/04/22- BPP University Law School virtual open evening: SQE courses for non-law graduates: Sign up to this BPP virtual open evening to discuss with their tutors what studying for the SQE with them entails! In this session they will cover their qualifying routes into becoming a solicitor. Click here to sign up! 27/04/22- BPP University Law school virtual open evening: Bar courses for non-law graduates: Sign up to this BPP virtual open evening to discuss with their tutors and existing students what studying for the Bar with them entails! In this session they will cover their routes into training as a barrister. Click here to sign up! FORAGE ONLINE WORK EXPERIENCE OPPORTUNITIES: Linklaters UK Commercial Law Virtual Programme - Forage (theforage.com) Forage is a great way to build up your skills to add to your CV. Many Law Firms offer mini 'work experience' sessions through Forage. You can work through the eModules at your own pace, and even gain a certificate at the end of it!
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