Students finish as finalistsin national law competition

Charlotte Jose is a third-year LLB Law student at the University of Portsmouth.

She said: ‘Being involved in Future Legal Mind is going to help me as I know that this will be a great topic to be able to talk about at interviews.

‘Getting to the final shows that you’ve gone beyond what’s expected. It shows commercial awareness. It’s really important that you understand what’s going on in the legal world – you need to have the interest in it.’

Charlotte has competed in show jumping, both at home and abroad, carrying her passion through to university, where she competes on the university teams.

Ryan Pledge is a second-year LLB Law student at the University of Portsmouth.

Ryan said: ‘Commercial law is an interesting area – there’s quite a lot of law and business crossover and that’s something I wanted to develop. I was able to draw on work I’d done for my degree with my own research. The process took me about a month. It’s humbling to have my work recognised by the judges and to be invited.’

He is currently saving up for an east to west trip across America, a lifelong dream of his, and to be able to afford to create these memories is one of the many reasons a legal career appeals to him.

Charlotte and Ryan were two of the 10 finalists for Future Legal Mind 2016, which was presented at a glamorous ceremony at the historic Lincoln’s Inn in central London.

The overall winner, Tom Phillips, who is currently studying at The City Law School, won £5,000 and a work placement at law firm Simpson Millar.

George Croft, who came in second place, won £2,000 and a work placement.

If you, or a law student you know, would like to apply to win next year’s award, set to be launched later this year, registration for entrants is open here.