Tag Archives: Study Law

The future faces of law: a closer look at two rising legal scholars

Meet the Birkbeck law students in receipt of prestigious scholarships to aid them in their journey to becoming barristers.

Law students hoping to become barristers must undertake the Bar Professional Training Course, which serves as the vocational stage of training required for entry to the Bar of England and Wales. Upon successful completion of their course, graduates are eligible to be called to the Bar and embark on their careers as barristers.

This year, two students from Birkbeck’s Law School have been awarded prestigious scholarships towards their Bar courses by the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, one of the four renowned Inns of Court. Membership in one of these Inns is a prerequisite for individuals aspiring to be called to the Bar and pursue a career as a barrister in England and Wales.

Viran Solanki, studying LLB Law at Birkbeck, and recipient of Middle Temple’s Jerry Parthab Singh Scholarship to help fund his Bar Course.

What attracted you to studying law?

I have worked in various roles within the court service since 2018, initially at a County Court and currently at the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration & Asylum Chamber). Witnessing first hand on a day-to-day basis the way in which barristers used their specialist knowledge to make a real difference in an individual or family’s lives motivated me to pursue a career in law.

Why did you choose to study Law at Birkbeck?

The flexible studying options really appealed. Studying here allowed me to work full-time while studying across four years in the evenings.

With the flexibility afforded to you through your studies, how do you spend your days? My full time is as a Legal Officer in the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration & Asylum Officer). This involves working to delegated judicial functions to effectively case manage immigration appeals, identifying and resolving barriers to case progression. I’ve also found that I’ve been applying legal research skills learnt at Birkbeck to real world scenarios to communicate complex procedural matters in a simple way. I have also presided in several Case Management Appointment hearings, with the goal of effectively narrowing issues in dispute and ensuring compliance prior to a substantive appeal hearing.

What’s been your favourite thing about your academic journey so far?

The opportunity to meet new people from all kinds of backgrounds and careers has been wonderful. I definitely would not have achieved much throughout the last few years without the support of colleagues and tutors!

What are your plans for the future?

Results permitting, I plan on studying the Bar Course at the Inns of Court College of Advocacy from September 2024, following which the plan is to find pupillage and qualify as a barrister specialising in immigration law!

How do you think law can make a difference in the world?

People generally interact with the face of the law when they are in need and often at a low point in their life, be it after an arrest or as a victim of crime, a particularly bitter family dispute or in an immigration context as they flee persecution in their home country. Law makes a difference for these people by ensuring that they are able to have the fairest assessment of their dispute or issue. I hope that by developing skills grounded in my studies at Birkbeck, I will be able to contribute to assisting those that are in need.

What does the scholarship mean to you?

The scholarship means a lot! Of course, the financial assistance towards the paying of fees for the Bar Course is greatly appreciated, but also coming through a difficult application and interview process has in a sense validated the long nights at the library and studies leading up to this point. Being awarded the scholarship has reiterated the sense that the path towards becoming a barrister is the right one for me, and has motivated me to continue to strive towards this goal.

Jack Soares Mullen, studying the Graduate Diploma in Law at Birkbeck and recipient of Middle Temple’s Harmsworth scholarship which will fully cover his Bar Course.

What attracted you to studying law?

I worked as a teacher for three years and then, two years ago, changed careers and joined the civil service. In my current role I work for the Judicial Office and work closely with a number of judges which has exposed me to the workings of the justice system, and this sparked an interest in becoming a barrister.

Why did you choose to study Law at Birkbeck?

I wanted to be able to continue working in my current role and, with classes held in the evening, Birkbeck provided the perfect opportunity to study alongside my work commitments.

With your classes taking place in the evenings, how do you spend your days?

I’ve continued to work full-time alongside studying full time this year which takes up most of time. Even so, I have managed to complete two mini pupillages and marshalled some judges this academic year. A highlight was marshalling two high court judges at Bristol Crown Court, observing two complex murder trials.

What’s been your favourite thing about your academic journey so far?

I loved representing the university at the Michael Corkery Criminal Law Moot. I was sure I wanted to become a criminal barrister once I took the course, and getting to test my advocacy skills alongside my fantastic mooting partner, Emma, was great fun and a real adrenaline rush. I can’t recommend to other students the value of taking up mooting opportunities – particularly if they are looking to get a pupillage at the bar.

What are your plans for the future?

I was fortunate enough to receive a scholarship for my GDL (law conversion course) from Middle Temple and then another scholarship to study the bar course, which I will begin in September this year. I’ve also managed to secure a pupillage at a well-respected criminal chambers, 2 Hare Court, for September 2025 so, if all goes well, I will begin my career at the bar there then.

How do you hope to make a difference in the world?

I hope that becoming a criminal barrister will give me the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives. Whether someone is a complainant, defendant or witness, when someone encounters the criminal justice system it is likely to be a stressful moment, and for some, a very difficult moment of their lives. Being able to guide people through the process and present their position to the court is a valuable and exciting thing to do. Perhaps unlike other areas of law, crime will always have people at the centre no matter how serious the offence. Therefore, even at the earliest stages in my career, every day in court will matter to somebody and make a real difference in their world.

What does the scholarship mean to you?

The scholarship is invaluable to me, because the journey to the bar can be an expensive one. Securing scholarships for both the GDL and bar course has meant I haven’t taken on any debt and removed that barrier. Scholarships from the inns are also a useful stamp of approval for any aspiring barrister when applying for pupillage. They show that at least one panel of barristers and judges believes that you are capable of a career at the bar. Knowing this has given me some confidence that I’ve chosen the right path, particularly given how competitive it is to get pupillage and tenancy.

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Study Law at Birkbeck

An international student’s life changing experience of living, studying and interning in a law firm in London

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Eucharia Chikodi Egemole came to the UK from Nigeria to study LLM General Law at Birkbeck. Here she shares her experience so far, including highlights, tips and things she wished she knew before coming to the UK.

Eucharia looks into the camera. Behind her the Thames is visible and in the distance, Tower Bridge.

Exploring London

When I decided to do a Master’s in Law, I chose to do so in the UK because of the quality of education and also because the legal system of my home country, Nigeria, was largely developed from the English legal system. What better way than learning the law directly from the source?

I applied to Birkbeck because, amongst other qualities, it was an evening university that allowed me the freedom to intern at a law firm during the days to gain legal experience. After being offered a place, I was swiftly issued with my Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS). Compared to the experiences my friends had when they applied to other universities, getting my CAS from Birkbeck was a very smooth experience. Below is my account of how it’s all gone so far – hopefully it can be helpful for any other international students!

The visa process
For international students wishing to study in the UK and in need of a visa to do so, time is of the essence. It is advisable to apply for a visa at least three months before the course commencement date. This allows enough time for you to get the visa, plan for any delays and prepare for travel. It’s also essential to submit all required documents as not doing so could lead to visa delay or denial.

Moving to London
I arrived in London on 6th October 2022, excited to be in the great city and ready for new experiences. It was my first time in the city and I’d never left my country before. My accommodation is in Chiswick, an area of West London, and I found it with the help of a fellow student who I met in a Facebook page created for Birkbeck international students called the ’Pre-departure Lounge for BBK 2022 International’. The page was very helpful as it gave information on how to collect the Biometric Residence Permit (BRP), open a bank account, the times and dates of study events, and a lot of other helpful information for international students.

Living in London
Living in London so far has been quite amazing. I thought I would feel homesick, but that is far from the case. London is so multicultural that even though it is miles away from your country, the chances are that you could meet someone from your background on the street or even bump into someone that speaks your language while strolling in the park. It is a home away from home.

Eucharia stood on the concourse of a station with a sign reading St Pancras behind her.

About to ride the tube for the first time at London St Pancras

Here are some highlights for me:

Sightseeing: there are so many famous landmarks and places to visit, like London Bridge, Tower Bridge, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace or any of the museums and galleries.
Food: London has an exceptional offering of different cuisines from all over the world including African, Chinese, Italian, and not forgetting English dishes too! I love good food and any time I am about to have a good multicultural food experience, I borrow the biblical verse and tell my soul to “eat and be merry”.
Transport: the public transport system of tubes and buses is commendable. The network is designed so that a person can connect to anywhere across the city quickly and with ease.

While there are opinions that London is quite an expensive city to live in, I have found a way to manage my expenses and still have a good time. I have Railcard and an Oyster card that offer me discounts on transport; I try to do my shopping in stores that are having clearance sales; and I also prepare many meals at home. I am having an amazing time in London on a minimal budget.

Things I wish I knew before I travelled
If I were to prepare to travel all over again, I would not have packed and paid for extra luggage of foodstuffs. I could have got the same items in any African shop in London (there are many!) and at affordable rates too, saving myself the trouble, time, and money.

The native clothes and attire I brought with me also ended up as decoration in my suitcase, because I don’t wear them. If I knew, I wouldn’t have packed them as they mostly don’t suit any occasion here in London.

Eucharia looking into the camera with the London Eye visible just behind her

At the London Eye

Another big thing is timekeeping. For an African like me, an hour or two past the agreed time is still within time. But that is not so in London. An appointment fixed for a particular time starts at that time and not a minute later.

And finally, in the UK, people queue up for services. In my home country, there are hardly any queues as a person takes their turn depending on how sharp or smart they are, or if they can pay their way.

My experience at Birkbeck so far
The learning experience at Birkbeck has been a highlight. Courses are taught by class discussions and lectures, and I have found this to be a great way for me to assimilate and retain information. It has also honed my communication skills.

The staff have been amazing, especially those working for the Student Advice Service. They are always available to listen to students, decipher their problems, and offer lasting solutions, which I have benefitted from.

Another highlight has been interacting with my fellow students. Chatting with them and hearing about their diverse cultures and backgrounds is fascinating and adds to the whole experience.

Conclusion
Living in London for me has been a life-changing experience. Meeting and interacting with people from diverse cultures has contributed to my personal growth and development – I now understand more about the world and myself. I had the challenge of coming to a new country and meeting new people, and I rebuilt myself to do this. Now, I am all I was before, but I have also acquired the confidence of a Londoner. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything in the world.

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Farewell adultery: new divorce laws come into effect in April 2022

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Fifty years on since the introduction of the Divorce Reform Act, new laws coming into effect in the Spring will remove adultery as a basis for divorce. Daniel Monk, Professor of Law, discusses the history of the Act, seen as progressive for its time, and implications from the legal reform.

Cover: Fifty Years of the Divorce Act 1969 (Hart/Bloomsbury)

On 6 April the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2021 will come into force. This long awaited statute repeals the Divorce Reform Act 1969 and sweeps away the final vestiges of matrimonial fault as a legal basis for divorce. For campaigners and family law practitioners this is a cause for celebration. The focusing on establishing adultery and detailing the ‘unreasonable’ behaviour of spouses exacerbated emotional distress and in practice had long become a ritualised often formulaic paper exercise. Removing the need to refer to individual conduct reflects not just that divorce has become far more socially acceptable but also that divorce is perceived as a right, as important as the human right to marry, a personal choice, a private matter. The decision of the Supreme Court in Owens v Owens in 2018, in which a wife’s petition for divorce was, exceptionally, defended by her husband and, even more surprisingly, rejected by the court, was, consequently, a shocking reminder of how out of step the law was with contemporary experiences and perceptions of divorce, and marriage. As such the Supreme Court judgement assisted in the path to reform, possibly intentionally.

But it is worthwhile remembering that the Divorce Reform Act 1969 was itself heralded as a progressive reform. Alongside the Sexual Offences Act 1967 and the Abortion Act 1967 it justifiably stands as a representative symbol of that permissive, increasingly secular, time. Of course, the history is more complex: all those landmark statutes were riddled with compromises.

The 1969 Act removed all references to ‘marital offences’ and ‘the guilty party’ and enshrined the principle that a divorce could be granted if the marriage had ‘broken down irretrievably’. But while it enabled this to be established by facts relating to separation and, radically, simply by consent of the parties, at the same time it repackaged earlier ‘offences’ of adultery, behaviour and desertion as ‘facts’ which could also be relied on to establish breakdown of a marriage.

In practice adultery and behaviour remained consistently popular ‘facts’ for divorce. There may be pragmatic reasons for this – it avoided delay and separation can sometimes be hard to establish – but it also suggests that for a large number of people attributing responsibility for the breakdown of a relationship was always more than simply a legal hurdle, but a way of validating a personal narrative or emotional truth. The social stigma attached to divorce has undoubtedly shifted, but far less, if at all, the investment in romantic ideals, conjugal coupledom and belief in the value of the making of a life-long commitment.

For many sexual fidelity remains key. Indeed, some gay and lesbian activists went so far as to complain that the law’s refusal to recognise adultery as a basis for ending same-sex marriages and civil partnerships was a form of unjust discrimination. This somewhat bizarre demand for the legal recognition of ‘same-sex adultery’ overlooked the haunting significance of ‘illegitimacy’ and gendered double standards inherent in the offence of adultery. But it demonstrates how malleable concepts are, how change and continuity go hand in hand: the commands of moral judgment morphing into desires for therapeutic justice.

Adultery has deep roots. Prior to 1937 it had been the sole basis for divorce, and double standards for husbands and wives were enshrined in the law. Going back further it is worth remembering that Protestant theological recognition of divorce was premised on a zealous belief in the importance of punishing adulterers and a withering scorn for Catholicism’s more pragmatic practises of formal separation and all too easily obtained annulments.

With Adultery soon to disappear from the statute books, family law students will no longer be required to read what must be some of the most prurient cases in the law. Confession: they were fun to teach. Adultery will live on in costume dramas – A Very British Scandal about the notorious divorce case Argyll v Argyll (1962) is the most recent example – and as an historical curiosity in countless plays and novels. But what impact, if any, will the legal reform have on spousal expectations and aspirations? Devoid of any legal scaffolding, what place will Adultery have in wider public consciousness?

One reason why it is hard to answer these questions is because of the deep-seated ambivalence about divorce per se. While no longer enveloped in theological sin or social disgrace, shame lingers on and is reinforced by the cruel notion of a ‘failed marriage’. Divorce as a problem is buttressed in more subtle ways by fashionable ‘psychological’ narratives that place increasing emphasis on ‘attachment disorders’ to explain relationship failure. Emotional truths may replace a legal truth in undertaking the autopsy of a marriage, but they are more, not less, judgmental. The endless retelling of the divorce of Charles and Diana is evidence of an appetite for the blame game – by observers as well as the parties – while the fact that in law their divorce was based on separation is overlooked.

The centrality of emotions and feelings in narratives of divorce also obscures other explanations. When statistics recently revealed an increase in divorces of spouses over 60, who had been married for over 30 years, few greeted this as, in part, a welcome indicator that for the first time for a significant number of women divorce was not just socially but an economically viable option. High rates of owner occupation in that age group may be a factor – unlikely to be reached again. It’s too often overlooked that decreases in divorce reflect economic as much as emotional realities and should be a cause for concern. ‘Is divorce good for women?’ has long been a question dividing feminist opinion. The 1969 Act was described by some as a ‘Casanova’s charter’ for husbands but by others as an essential tool of liberation.

Divorce reform has been a key way in which the institution of marriage has been reimagined and reinvented. But at the same time divorce has always been about more than the institution of marriage, rather a window into complex, unsettling and ambivalent personal and political stories about progress, desire, and commitment.

Fifty Years of the Divorce Act 1969 (Hart/Bloomsbury), edited by Joanna Miles, Daniel Monk and Rebecca Probert, was published yesterday. It presents a ‘life-story’ of the Act through the lens of history, law, literature, demography and sociology, and looking to the future suggests ways for evaluating what makes a ‘good’ divorce law.

Further Information

“Birkbeck equipped me with knowledge that has helped me continue making a difference in my community.”

Can you tell us about your background?

Before joining Birkbeck I had completed a Bachelor of Laws from Uganda Christian University after which I pursued the Bar Course to enable me to practice Law in Uganda.

I chose Birkbeck’s intensive LLM International Economic Law programme because it fitted within the work I was doing at the time. I was working as a Court Mediator which involved helping people settle disputes without going through the whole process of litigation. I was helping the vulnerable attain justice.

The programme includes two blocks of intensive face to face teaching. Can you tell us about your time in London and on campus?

I enjoyed studying with my classmates because we were from a range of professions, from lawyers to bankers to actresses. They brought a rich contribution to the lectures and discussions we often had. The different professions brought a different angle to the human rights course unit we were studying. I have kept in touch with four of my classmates.

I particularly enjoyed the Human Rights class and the Risks and Response class. I received additional support from the Library Team. They made using the Library easy along with the online Library. I also received a Tutorial on how to write a dissertation.

Unfortunately, I did not join any social clubs or societies as I was studying an intensive course so had little free time on my hands. But I had a great time looking around London.

What did you enjoy the most about living in London?

London has so many tourist attractions that I enjoyed going to when I got some free time. I also enjoyed the diverse range of cuisines available; I was able to eat food from my country during my stay.

I had never lived overseas before coming to UK. I was living in Harpenden and because of the efficient transport system I had no trouble coming into London for study and research.

Furthermore, I was fortunate that a British family took me in and looked after me for my whole stay. I did not have challenges living in London because I was well taken care of by the Vickers Family – I am forever grateful for their generosity. The weather was not a problem as I was in London during spring and summer.

How has your time at Birkbeck influenced your life and career since then?

Birkbeck helped me to become a critical thinker, a skill that was key to me getting my research job. I was appointed as a lecturer to the School of Law of Nkumba University because I had an LLM and I was also given a Research Job by Judiciary because of the skills I had attained from Birkbeck.

I work under a Justice of the High Court in the Commercial Division of the High Court. I have also started a Legal Aid Project that is helping the needy and vulnerable people where I live in Entebbe attain legal services at no cost.

What are your top tips for aspiring students?

The Legal profession requires Commitment and hard work, after attaining your law degree aim to make a difference in the community around you. I thank Birkbeck for equipping me with the knowledge that has helped me continue making a difference in my community. I am currently applying for a Law PhD at Birkbeck.

Birkbeck will make your study easy and enjoyable. It has a diverse culture, you cannot fail to fit in. The members of staff are professional and make understanding the concepts easy. Apply for a course now, don’t hesitate!

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Birkbeck Perspectives

Birkbeck experts and students share their opinions on a diverse range of thought-provoking topics.