Jacksons was once again excited to welcome the students from High Tide Foundation to our Stockton office during Law Experience Week. It was great to spend the day with the students and to get to know them better. It never ceases to amaze us how engaging and enthusiastic the students are, which always makes these events such a pleasure.
We thought it would be great to get some feedback from the students and asked them to write a blog on their experience of their day at Jacksons. With this in mind, we decided to run a competition and give a prize for the best three blogs. It was a difficult decision as all entries were brilliant, and in our eyes they are all winners. However, the decision has been made; Jack Collins from Prior Pursglove College, wins 3rd prize. Well done Jack, your prize is on its way! Look out for the announcement for 2nd place on Jane’s blog tomorrow with 1st place being announced on Friday.
The opportunity of a day’s work experience at one of the longest established law firms in the North East was admittedly an exciting prospect that certainly did not disappoint!
Present on the day were a number of key representatives from the firm and the morning session began with an inspiring introductory speech from the managing partner of the company, Jane Armitage. This was swiftly followed by a synopsis of the individual pathway Jane’s colleagues took to become qualified in their own law careers. I found the career pathways of each and every representative’s journey to law insightful and this gave me a greater incentive to explore the range of avenues into the law industry. With a strong personal desire to pursue a future career in law, I found this information extremely influential because not only did they explain their varying pathways to becoming an employee at Jacksons Law Firm, they also explained aspects of the law degree and other required qualifications depending on the area of law you might wish to study.
Moreover, Emily Robertson (a recently qualified solicitor for the firm) led an extremely interesting true or false quiz consisting of bizarre laws in the UK and the rest of the world. Following this, the rest of the students and I from The High Tide Foundation were condensed into smaller groups and set a research task. Instantly, I recognised this would be an excellent opportunity to ‘break the ice’ with the rest of my colleagues with this being the first of five days of my work experience placement, which was kindly organised by The High Tide Foundation. My group coincidentally consisted of three other Prior Pursglove students who also happen to study Law at A-Level and collectively we decided to research the criminalisation of homeless people in the UK. After gathering the relevant facts and statistics, we collated the information and made a presentation. The presentation was carefully observed by the team of trainee solicitors and paralegals from the Jacksons Law Firm and we were allocated positions in a mock trial accordingly.
After a short lunch break the preparations for the mock trial commenced. Firstly, we were split into two groups, the defence and the prosecution, and we began by gathering witness statements. Subsequently, the rest of the students and I vigorously quizzed the Jacksons’ representatives (who were acting as the defendant and witnesses) in order to gather an account of the proposed murder scenario. Finally, the mock trial began with Toby Joel (Head of Commercial Litigation and Debt Recovery) acting as the Judge. I thought the implementation of the mock trial was excellent for a ‘hands on’ experience of the life of a barrister.
The professionalism and the clear strong sense of pride of being part of Jacksons Law Firm was portrayed throughout the day, and the enthusiasm displayed by the trainee solicitors and paralegals has both reinforced and empowered my own personal aspirations to pursue a law degree post college.
I would like to thank both Jacksons Law Firm and The High Tide Foundation for making this highly beneficial experience possible.
Jack Collins, Prior Pursglove College
