We had the honour of hosting Jessica Gavron (1987), a barrister and Legal Director of the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre, in Michaelmas term. Hearing about her experiences litigating human rights cases before the European Court of Human Rights, and the current state of the law today, provided important, real-world perspectives for our academic studies. For me, a particularly memorable takeaway from the event was Jessica’s reflection that the litigations brought against states capture the state of affairs in a particular moment in time; they become important, incontrovertible proof against competing narratives painted by states that in the future may suggest that there were no human rights violations. Jessica shared that her time at Trinity Hall studying history helped her arrive at this insight, showing that what we study at Trinity Hall continues to lay the foundation of our approaches to tricky issues. It’s exciting to be part of the next generation of students from a college with such a rich and inspiring history in law.
Studying law can be intense and challenging, so we are working to foster a close-knit and supportive community through shared study sessions and social activities. We hope that sharing these experiences will further strengthen our academic endeavours and sense of belonging. We’ve also received a lot of feedback and enthusiasm from nonlaw students who are interested in the field, so we hope to engage those members of Trinity Hall too. Having elected a non-law representative, we consciously design our events to be inclusive. For our careers panel in Lent term, as well as inviting alumni who studied law, we also invited Ruth Byrne KC (1997) who studied languages but went on to pursue a legal career. We hope this will inspire non-law students who may be interested in a career in law.
Our first careers panel in February was a great success. Alongside leading practitioners in investor-state arbitrations, Ruth Byrne and Dr Cameron Miles (2012) from 3VB, we also welcomed back international criminal law practitioner Gillian Higgins (1994) from 9BR and senior civil servant, Tristan Pedelty (2002) from the Cabinet Office. We heard about their time at Trinity Hall, how they started out in their respective fields, and their reflections on their career journey thus far. Gillian shared a particularly inspiring story about how she created opportunities to work on very interesting criminal law cases by actively pursuing them. Many of our audience members were deeply inspired and benefitted immensely from the genuine sharing and dynamic exchanges during the Q&A sessions. The Law Society hopes to continue engaging who may be interested in speaking to students at Trinity Hall.
The Law Society Annual Dinner in February was excellent. We were joined by many alumni who are successful and well-respected in their fields. Hearing about their experiences and different pathways really inspired our members to think about what they can become, from barristers to academics. It’s always special to have alumni at our events and fascinating to speak to them about their time at College and their lives afterwards.
I’m proud to be part of a College with such a strong, historic standing in law that believes in the future of its students.
