Bright legal minds on shortlist for top award

The University of Portsmouth has two finalists in the national Future Legal Mind competition.

Students in the School of Law, Charlotte Jose and Ryan Pledge have beaten more than 1,000 entrants to win a place in the top 10.

They are now in the running for a £5,000 cash prize and a work placement at law firm Simpson Millar, having wowed the award’s judges with their essays on the future of legal services for firms and consumers.

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Ms Jose is a third year LLB law student who has an interest in the doctrine of joint enterprise, a problematic area of law which she finds both fascinating and testing.

She said: ‘It is an honour to have been shortlisted for this prestigious award.

‘It has given me a lot of self confidence in my academic work and will be invaluable to my CV.

‘I thoroughly enjoyed writing this essay. The university has helped me develop a “go for it” attitude, a philosophy which I applied when taking on this task.

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‘I want to thank Joanne Atkinson for her supervision with this piece of work and thank Rachel Spearing for all her help this year.’

Mr Pledge is a second year LLB law student. He first became interested in law when researching his employment rights as a part-time employee on a zero-hours contract.

He said: ‘I am extremely grateful to be included on the shortlist and having the quality of my work recognised by the judges. To be picked out as a finalist from a large quantity of applicants has furthered my desire to pursue a career in law, and made all of the planning and research worthwhile.

The winner will be announced on Wednesday.