How we won ‘Best law society overall’ at LawCareers.Net’s Student Law Society Awards 2023

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The Edward Bramley Law Society is the largest law society at The University of Sheffield and one of the largest in Europe. We’re very fortunate to be made up of a significant number of returning committee members this year, which helped the society to get off to a flying start when planning for the upcoming year. We’re delighted to have won two awards at LawCareers.Net’s Student Law Society Awards: ‘Best at student engagement’, sponsored by TLT LLP, and ‘Best law society overall’.

The success of the society during 2022/2023 wouldn’t have been possible without all 24 of our amazing committee members. Everybody has worked tirelessly to provide our members with the best possible opportunities, both academically and socially.

My name’s Kirsty Haynes – I’m the president of Edward Bramley Law Society and a final year LLB law and criminology student keen to progress into the commercial law field. I’ve recently secured a training contract at CMS and am excited to embark on this journey! My vice president, William Jones, is a final year LLB law student with experience working alongside a criminal barrister, a human rights judge and the head of legal at a Premier League football club. William’s currently looking for exposure across many facets of the legal profession before specialising in a particular field.

Our society provides members with a unique blend of academic and social events. There are several different events that members can participate in, from mooting events to sports teams and socials. While our society implements the ideas of our members to a high standard, we also consider those outside of our membership and host events open to the whole university! Most notably, the careers dinner and law winter ball are open to both members and non-members alike, which illustrates how inclusion and student engagement is at the forefront of our events. Moreover, we offer a range of career insight experiences to give students the information they need to navigate their way around the legal industry, from both law and non-law backgrounds.

Find out more about the Student Law Society Awards with our microsite.

We believe that the opportunities Edward Bramley Law Society provides are hugely beneficial to our members, as the society helps students to develop skills that’ll benefit their future endeavours. A great example of this is the society careers dinner, as it supports attendees to develop their networking skills while increasing their confidence in talking to professionals both in law and the wider business world.

Our society offers a huge variety of academic, social, and sporting opportunities, which all embody the core values of this society:

• inclusion;
• diversity;
• enjoyment; and
• knowledge.

I believe these values won us our awards this year.

Events are invaluable to the society as they boost student engagement. In reference to our ‘Best at student engagement’ award, one of our members noted that it was “a testament to the society as it shows how it’s not only brilliant at engaging new members, but also at retaining members, including alumni who have graduated”.

While our society balls and careers dinner were greatly attended and appreciated by our members and non-members, I believe that the smaller initiatives and events we put on have had an equally recognisable part in our society achieving these awards. Our members are the most important and valuable part of the society and as such, we make the most of every opportunity to listen to what they want to gain from the society.

Our members also told us that “the overarching theme of inclusion that this society fosters and operates on, helps to increase widespread societal enjoyment as well as participation”. This year, we were fortunate enough to collaborate with Reed Smith, as our diversity and inclusion (D&I) partner. Through this collaboration we were able to place inclusivity at the centre of the society and integrate D&I efforts in all aspects of our work. Initiatives included our D&I week (sponsored by Walker Morris LLP), a ‘Diversity and Inclusion Meal’’ with Reed Smith, and ensuring each event was tailored to the needs of all our members.

Overall, we’re proud to say that our society prides itself on helping its members prepare for the future, while concurrently enjoying the present.

Kirsty Haynes (she/her) is the president of Edward Bramley Law Society and future trainee at CMS, you can connect with her on LinkedIn.