Best law society president: what being a good leader means

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I’m Winky Yu, a final-year LLB student and president of the Cardiff University Law Society. It was such a great honour to be awarded ‘Best law society president’ at the 2024 LawCareers.Net Student Law Society Awards and I’m beyond grateful.

First of all, I must stress that this award wouldn’t have been possible without the society’s amazing committee this year. Leading a society with over 600 members is such a humbling experience. Being president of a big society is difficult and stressful, and you must be constantly ready to put out fires.. This award is an incredible acknowledgement of my effort throughout the past year. It’s especially meaningful to me as an international student and a first-generation university student.

The importance of a society’s members

The most important element and objective of a society is its members. Without members, there is no society. This is why my overarching goal this year is to improve members’ experience, and it’s the motivating factor of everything that I do for the society.

As president, I secured sponsorships from all five of the magic circle firms, which has never been accomplished before for the Cardiff University Law Society. Since before my term in office officially started, I’ve been liaising and negotiating with different organisations to source funds for the society so that members could attend events at lower costs. Despite completing a full-time internship in Hong Kong at the time and organising individual onboarding meetings with committee members, I was able to close deals with 13 international law firms. This led to a 38% increase in sponsorship funds, which greatly improved the finances for the society – not only for this year, but for upcoming academic years as well.

I’m also dedicated to building a good relationship with the society’s members, the law school, university and external organisations. I strongly believe that in order to sustain the society’s long-term success, we must work closely with these institutions and prioritise our members. Conscious of the society’s large platform, I introduced charity shoutouts in the society’s bi-weekly newsletter.

I’m also dedicated to spreading awareness in different areas. For example, the society has promoted events such as neurodiversity events and blood donation. With my international background, I’ve also pushed for the society to hold different cultural events, such as a Lunar New Year dinner and a Sisters’ Iftar.

What a good leader means

Before anything, I must emphasise that I only have experience leading student societies, which is insignificant compared to other organisations in the world. Different people have different definitions of what a good leader means. I don’t believe that there’s a single best leader in the world, as different teams require different leadership styles. However, I do think that there are key elements that are central to being a good leader.

In my humble view, a good leader should be an active listener, capable of bringing out the best traits of committee members. It’s important to be understanding, have good conflict management and organisational skills.

Most importantly, a good leader should be a safety net that committee members can fall on. I’ve always said that being president isn’t nearly as glorious as people may think. If anything, the president is the most basic role. The president is the one whose constantly cleaning up after committee members. When events are successful, credits should rightfully go to the committee member who organised them. When anything goes wrong, it’s the president’s responsibility, as it happened under the president’s supervision.

Running a committee

It's equally crucial to be strict with committee members (and to apply an even higher standard to yourself!). This can be difficult, especially for those who are non-confrontational. I have to constantly remind myself that I’m here to get things done, not to make friends and be a people pleaser. If a president isn’t strict enough, committee members can easily avoid their responsibilities, which is detrimental to the society and its members. Personally, I think this is the most difficult part of being in a leadership role. While it’s easy to organise events, the most difficult part is coming to terms with people’s comments.

Humans are inherently social beings, which means that we give a lot of weight to what others think of us. Because of this, people hate being called to answer to the negative consequences of their actions or the lack thereof. In response, some would attempt to discredit the ones calling them out by speaking poorly and spreading rumours with no basis. This is the most difficult part of being president. To me, the most difficult thing about being a good leader is holding people accountable and being indifferent to comments, strictly separating personal matters from professional ones.

I have such strong views about leadership, especially within student societies, as I think it’s such a big factor when determining whether an organisation will grow and be successful. Another reason why I feel so strongly about leadership is that throughout the three years that I’ve been in university, I’ve seen so many societies with incredible potential that wasn’t fulfilled. I’m in no way saying that I’m an excellent leader. I have so much more to learn so that I can grow both personally and professionally. I’m eternally grateful that I have the opportunity to experience, make mistakes and improve.

I’d like to take this opportunity to personally say thank you to all those who believe in me, even at times when I didn’t believe in myself. While it’s nerve-wracking to be graduating in a few months, I’m excited to gain more experience, see more of the world and step into the next chapter of my life.

For the full list of winners at the 2024 Student Law Society Awards, head to the microsite.