How we won ‘Best social event’ at LawCareers.Net’s Student Law Society Awards 2023
updated on 21 April 2023
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My name’s Gurpreet Chaggar, I am an undergraduate LLB law student at Aston University Birmingham, currently undertaking a placement year.
I’m president of Aston Law Society (ALS) for the 2022/2023 academic year, and my main role has been to coordinate the society’s activities with events held by the law school, student union, and university as a whole. I also represent the law society at internal and external events and ensure that the committee works together as a team to run various careers and social events throughout term time.
I’ve been a member of the law society since my first year and have grown increasingly involved with the society each year that I’ve been at Aston – including participating in the brand ambassador scheme during the 2021/2022 academic year.
I’m proud to say Aston was nominated for two awards at the LawCareers.Net Student Law Society Awards 2023. The categories we were nominated for were ‘Best social event’, and ‘Best careers event’, with ALS winning the former. The nomination for ‘Best social event’ was centred on the pizza party and quiz we held at the start of the academic year. This event was open to all law students and included free refreshments.
The event was a huge success, with over 100 students in attendance across all years of undergraduate and postgraduate study. It was a truly humbling experience to receive such glowing feedback from our members. At the awards ceremony, it was revealed that one of our members said: “This was the best social event as it was a brilliant way to interact with fellow peers as well as lecturers, which improved my confidence.” This feedback made it clear that the goals we’d set as a committee for the year had been met and had a positive impact on our members.
At the start of the academic year, the committee decided that our main goal during our term was to foster a sense of community. As students, we all experienced the impact of the covid-19 pandemic in different ways, and we felt that an informal event would help re-introduce large-scale social events to students who may have been deprived of them in previous years. We worked alongside the law school to advertise this event to all students, with the aim of setting the tone for the academic year to come.
Upon reflection, the pizza party and quiz set the tone for ALS events this year. The 2022/2023 academic year also saw the return of:
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5-a-side football;
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a networking event held in collaboration with Muslim Lawyers’ Hub;
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a Q&A with criminal law practitioners; and
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the first Aston law ball in law school history.
The events we’ve held this year focused on engaging the student community while collaborating with the wider legal community in Birmingham and beyond.
We’re a goal-oriented team who are dedicated to meeting student satisfaction. We’re so grateful to have accepted the award for ‘Best social event’ from LawCareers.Net and look forward to seeing the committee of 2023/2024 build upon these foundations to achieve more in the year to come!
Gurpreet Chaggar is the president of Aston Law Society and an aspiring lawyer. You can connect with him and the society on LinkedIn.
You can see a list of all our winners on the LawCareers.Net Student Law Society Awards microsite.
