Law student sought for volunteer vacancy – Project Coordinator for Big Voice London

Volunteer Vacancy - Project Coordinator

Job Title/Summary: Project Coordinator (Volunteer Role)

Position length: One year, from August 2016 – August 2017, with potential for extension.

Role Description

Your main role will involve helping to organise the annual student projects. You will work alongside the Director of Big Voice London and another volunteer Coordinator. The role will mostly involve working from home, liaising with supporters, students, schools, volunteers and legal professionals via email. We are looking for a volunteer to act as a Coordinator, who will need to commit around 6 hours per week, including two hours per week contact time with students throughout the duration of the main projects. Most weekly sessions are held at City Law School in London on a Thursday evening between 6-8pm. Coordinators are usually law students or graduates, or students currently undertaking the LPC/BPTC, but we would take applications from individuals from any background.

Most importantly we are looking for a committed individual who is passionate about assisting with increasing social mobility in the legal profession and who enjoys working with and inspiring young people to achieve their full potential.

Application Process

If you wish to apply, please send a CV and brief email explaining why you would like to join Big Voice London to bigvoicelondon@gmail.com. Equally if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email us.

The closing date for applications is midnight on Friday 5th August 2016. Interviews will take place shortly after.

Who We Are

Big Voice London is a youth organisation which aims to engage disadvantaged young people law and legal policy, whilst providing them with increased access to a career in the legal profession.The project is supported by, but independent of, the UK Supreme Court. We also have links with Middle Temple, Linklaters, Lexis Nexis, Landmark Chambers, Cohen Davis Solicitors and City Law School, amongst others. Please visit www.bigvoicelondon.co.uk for more details.

Our Projects

Big Voice London runs a programme of four flagship projects each year: January - February: A review of a year in law with the UK Supreme Court New in 2016, this project provides students with the opportunity to reflect upon three of the most interesting Supreme Court cases from the previous year. After reviewing and analysing the decisions, participants write a report outlining their thoughts and giving their own judgments. This culminates in an event at the Supreme Court where the students propose their ideas. The project gives our students the opportunity to learn about the work of the Supreme Court – the highest court in England and Wales – and to engage with cutting edge legal policy, while at the same time learning about the role of our legal system more broadly.

This year students analysed cases regarding suspicionless stop and search powers (Roberts [2015] UKSC 79), freedom of information and the "black spider memos" (Evans [2015] UKSC 21), and publication of James Rhodes' autobiography (Rhodes [2015] UKSC 32).

March - June: Mooting Competition in association with the UK Supreme Court

Since 2011, we have held a mooting competition every year in association with the Supreme Court, in which we pair our students up with Bar Professional Training Course students, who act as ‘Mooting Mentors’. This structure enables our students to not only experience court advocacy for the first time, but also helps them to develop their knowledge of the law and their communication skills with the help of those already pursuing a career in law.

July: Summer School

We are fortunate enough to run a Summer School that brings students together to discuss growing issues of law in the UK. In previous years this has been in collaboration with Landmark Chambers. In 2014 the students discussed legal issues surrounding the controversial subject of fracking and in 2015 the Summer School focused on the law relating to human trafficking. Our third annual Summer School will bring students together to discuss the rapidly evolving field of Internet law.

October - December: The Model Law Commission in association with the Law Commission and Lexis Nexis

This annual event, now going into its fourth year, is unique to Big Voice London. It is a three-month long project which involves the students mirroring the work of the Law Commission. It culminates in an event in Parliament and attracts an audience of around one hundred people from the legal profession and politics, all of whom hear our student’s views on the future of our law and democracy. The Law Commission supports this event, by assisting the students in the drafting of their reports. Lexis Nexis also supports the event by generously publishing copies of our students’ Law Commission reports.