UK Commercial Awareness Competition won by team from Queen Mary

The first ever UK Commercial Awareness Competition has been won by a team of students from Queen Mary University of London.

The competition, organised by Aspiring Solicitors, saw 112 teams from 42 universities compete for the valuable prize of a summer vacation scheme at Simmons & Simmons, plus short placements at competition sponsors Clyde & Co, Hogan Lovells and Mayer Brown. The final at Barclays’ headquarters in Canary Wharf was contested by teams from the University of York, University of Leeds, University of Edinburgh, a wild card team comprised of students from multiple institutions and Queen Mary University of London, the eventual winners. In addition to the first prize, all five finalist teams will undertake legal work experience at Barclays.

LC.N watched the last two rounds of the final, which required the teams to answer lawyers’ and recruiters’ questions on commercial topics recently covered in the Financial Times, before a Dragons’ Den-style presentation to a discerning panel on a commercial issue of each team’s choice. The wild card team went first, discussing the broad implications and debatable effectiveness of the EU economic sanctions on Russia. Queen Mary followed by making a passionate case for a third runway at Heathrow Airport, while Leeds discussed the commercial implications of a UK exit from the European Union. The Edinburgh team considered the issue of geopolitics and the effects of the current oil crisis for firms’ clients; and the team from York discussed the political hot potato of tax avoidance and inversion.

Amir Ben Shabat, Mitan Patel and Jonathan Hollingsworth emerged deserved winners after an intense and interesting afternoon of politically-flavoured commercial discussion.

The 2015-16 UK Commercial Awareness Competition is now accepting expressions of interest from potential entrants - find out more here.