This day was geared towards assisting local school students (aged 16-18) in discovering more about the realities of life as a lawyer.
In the morning, 5 groups of 20 pupils rotated between difference professionals, including solicitors and members of the Bar Council, with Naomi as the sole barrister. This “meet the professionals” session was designed to be a Q&A for the pupils to ask any questions relating to the profession, as well as providing them with the opportunity to hear the chosen route the individual professionals took and why.
After lunch, Naomi took charge of the “Bar Challenge”, leading groups of 30 students at a time through various problem questions, typical scenarios that a pupil specialising in Criminal Law may face on a daily basis. The students displayed genuine enthusiasm for this challenge, some clearly demonstrating their budding analytical (and argumentative!) skills.
The day was a great success, with students taking away with them some valuable information as well as some handy hints on following their chosen career path.
Pupillage Masterclass
Naomi was also invited to be the guest speaker at the Bloomsbury College of Law Pupillage Masterclass evening on 16 February.
This session was designed to assist GDL/BPTC students in their up and coming pupillage applications, with insight into what chambers, and specifically 4KBW, look for in a pupil, from paper application through to 2nd six and onto tenancy.
Naomi’s assistance, as someone who sits on 4KBW’s pupillage committee, was well received and hopefully some pearls of wisdom will be of use as students face that hard task of completing their Pupillage Portal applications. They will at the very least have taken away some poor legal puns and a few amusing anecdotes: although the age gap between speaker and audience became glaringly obvious when a Morecambe and Wise reference was met with 50 blank expressions!
Naomi hopes to continue to cultivate this growing relationship with the College of Law, recognising the vital importance of feeding back from experience into the next generation of budding barristers.