Students celebrate success at annual pro bono awards

Students and law schools were recognised for their tremendous efforts in the field of pro bono, as the attorney general hosted the annual LawWorks & Attorney General Student Pro Bono Awards at the House of Commons.

Dominic Grieve, attorney general, thanked all those for their continuing efforts in running pro bono projects and commended the quality and innovation in evidence in this year’s nominations. He recognised the challenge of combining this substantial work alongside academic studies, commenting: "It is through this hard work that [students] continue one of the finest traditions of the legal profession".

The winners were as follows:

• best contribution by a law school - University of Northumbria;
• best contribution by a team of students - Hillsborough Team, University of Liverpool;
• best new student pro bono activity - Ulster Law Clinic, University of Ulster; and
• best contribution by an individual student - Jacqueline Wall, University of Strathclyde.

In an impressive line-up of nominees, winners were chosen by a panel of judges, including Tom Laidlaw, head of academic and public sector marketing at LexisNexis (the event's sponsor), president of the Law Society, Andrew Caplen, retired senior lawyer, Robin Porter and LawCareers.Net's editor, Isla Grant.

Awards were also presented to the winner of the Access to Justice Foundation student essay competition, Oliver Low, and the winners of the Law School Challenge 2014. Low’s article focusing on the importance of pro bono in legal education will be featured in the New Legal Journal. King’s College London took the prize for the Law School Challenge, following its team’s impressive efforts in raising £2,008.30 for LawWorks and the Bar Pro Bono Unit.

The full list of shortlisted nominees can be found on the LawWorks website.